Ballistics expert Edward Sereo continued with his testimony before the Pretoria High court on Tuesday in the Senzo Meyiwa murder trial.
This comes after a delayed start because Fisokuhle Ntuli, the fifth accused in the case, needed to get his medication. This caused them to arrive late for court.
Sereo was called after the state’s initial ballistics expert, Chris Mangena’s evidence. Mangena said the bullet found on the murder scene was positively linked with the gun belonging to one of the accused.
Expert’s job description questioned
State prosecutor advocate George Baloyi informed the court that they do not have questions for Sereo. And the defence counsel commenced with cross-examination.
The defence counsel for accused number one, advocate Thulani Mngomezulu, took the stand. He asked whether Sereo’s job description included the reconstruction of a crime scene.
“That is correct. However, I must add that I stopped attending crime scenes after an uninterrupted 10 years doing crime scenes.
“I stopped doing crime scenes in 2014. When I focused on the leadership and management of the operational team,” he said.
He also revealed that he couldn’t remember if he was working that day when Meyiwa passed away.
“I do not have the details but I know that Colonel Mangena worked on this matter. And I was not involved in the allocation of crime scene cases.
“Case work is distributed by commanders to different members. At the time in 2014, I was not the direct commander of Colonel Mangena as a result. I am not in a position to explain any details regarding that,” he added.
Mngomezulu said Mangena conducted an examination in November 2014. And there was a finding on his examination.
Verification process
“You claimed that you were aware of the examination that he conducted. What I want to know is the verification of a particular member after he has made his or her own findings. Is the verification only done when the results are positive or when there is a positive match?” asked Mngomezulu.
The verification must be done, Sereo responded, irrespective if the nature of the findings.
“In accordance with our standard operating procedure, all work that involves microscoping examination must be verified.
“I do not know who verified Mangena’s findings. And I did not verify those findings.”
