Court hears that Meyiwa murder accused travelled with cops to avoid boredom

JOHANNESBURG - An investigator in the Senzo Meyiwa murder trial has told the Pretoria High Court that he travelled with one of the accused for hours because he would get bored in his prison cell.

Sergeant Vusumuzi Mogane is back on the witness stand for cross-examination in the trial within a trial to establish the admissibility of confession statements by two of the accused.

The State wants statements by Bongani Ntanzi and Muzikawkhulelwa Sibiya to be admitted as evidence but the defence has argued that Ntanzi and Sibiya were assaulted to sign the already written statements.

Mogane led the arrest of Ntanzi in June 2020.

After police took Ntanzi to Sibanye Stillwater mine to confirm whether he was at work on the day Meyiwa was killed, Sergeant Mogane did not return Ntanzi to the holding cells at the Pretoria North Police Station.

Ntanzi was only booked back into his cell at 2:30 the next morning – that’s 18 hours after he was booked out.

Ntanzi’s lawyer, Advocate Thulani Mngomezulu, asked Mogane why he did not take Ntanzi back to the Pretoria North Police Station for detention.

"When we asked him if he wanted to go with us, he agreed also because if we took him back to his cell, he would be alone and he would be bored."

While Mogane has told the court that he cannot disclose the details of the cases he was working on, Judge Ratha Mokgoatlheng has ordered that he disclose those cases in a note to the court and all the lawyers.