The defence in the murder trial of the late Bafana Bafana goalkeeper Senzo Meyiwa on Wednesday presented a new witness, Absalom Nhlahlezi Zungu, the father of police constable Sizwe Zungu, at the Pretoria High Court.
Zungu told the court that police took him to a house that was not a police station, where he was instructed to make a statement.
He said the officers told him what to say, and even gave him the names of the accused men before court.
Asked about other suspects
According to Zungu, police asked if he knew the individuals and if he knew Meyiwa’s killers.
“They mentioned Muzi and Ntanzi and asked if I knew them,” he said while testifying.
He told the court that he knew accused Muzi Sibiya, as his neighbour, and Bongani Ntanzi, as he is his cousin’s son.
“The others I don’t know.”
He said this as he was led by defence advocate Charles Mnisi, who represents two of the accused.
“There wasn’t much that I was going to say to them because I saw the way they treated me. But they never assaulted me,” he added.
Zungu said he said what he was told to say while Brigadier Bongani Gininda was the one writing it down.
He testified that police later asked him to sign the statement, but he refused.
Wouldn’t sign prepared statement
“I wouldn’t have signed anything because it cannot be that a statement is going to be taken and it’s taken in the bushes and not at the police station,” he said.
“After that, they took me home.”
When asked whether his son was part of the group that drove him back home, Zungu said he was there.
He also told the court that he never met with his son again after that day.
Before meeting up with the police, Zungu said his son had previously come to his home in Ermelo. He said his son arrived at night and, out of respect, did not drink alcohol in his presence. He went out and came back later.
When he returned, Constable Zungu asked his father to testify for them and to change his surname to Khumalo.
“He said I was going to do this for him and for Gininda. We had an argument because I had warned him about this Gininda, and he left,” he said.
Connection to killers
When asked by Advocate Mnisi if it surprised him that his son had approached him to assist in finding the killers of Senzo Meyiwa, Zungu said he was shocked.
“I was surprised. And I even asked him why he would come to Ermelo instead of investigating where he was killed. I asked if he was killed in Ermelo,” he told the court.
He further testified that before that visit, Constable Zungu had told him that they were about to arrest Meyiwa’s killers, and that he was now attending meetings in Pretoria.
“I warned him about working with Gininda. I said if he knew the suspects, he must go to the police station, not Gininda,” said Zungu.
Advocate Mnisi told the court that there had been information suggesting that Constable Zungu obtained his knowledge about the murder of Meyiwa from his father.
However Zungu denied this.
“He didn’t get it from me. He’s the one who would come with things, and I don’t go around with them. He’s the one who told me that he knows the people that killed Meyiwa. And he’s my child, I know him. I saw him on a number of things, because he was looking at getting promotions,” he said.
