Ten years on: Senzo Meyiwa remembered

JOHANNESBURG - It's been 10 years since South Africa lost the captain of its national soccer team under devastating circumstances, leaving football fans and the country in absolute shock.

On the 26th of October 2014, Senzo Meyiwa was shot while at the home of his girlfriend, singer Kelly Khumalo, whom the State believes is the mastermind behind the murder.

It took six years for arrests to be made for the murder and a total of eight years before the trial could begin.

Two years since the first day of the trial, a verdict is yet to be delivered on the culpability of the five men accused of the beloved football star’s murder.

In a 10-year Senzo Meyiwa Special, EWN takes a look back at the night Meyiwa took his last breath, shattering the hearts of the nation.

"It's raining, that’s normally when your goalkeepers make the most mistakes – not for him that night," one fan said. 

"The last game, Ajax Cape Town vs Orlando Pirates, it was raining, as if that rain was saying to us supporters and the whole world and also for him, Senzo is playing for the last game today," another fan recalled.

The day before Meyiwa's passing has probably lived in the minds of his fans over the last decade, where it will be etched for years to come.

The Orlando Pirates captain put in the performance of a lifetime during a league game, helping the Buccaneers secure a 4-1 victory over Ajax Cape Town and securing him the man of the match title.

But little did he know that this would be the last time he would dazzle supporters on the field.

Mama Joy Chauke, the former Orlando Pirates Super Fan, said that match was her goodbye to the boy that she had watched from the development phase who grew into a man who would be like a son to her.

"That game, he has done the best. After the game, instead of going to the tunnels, he just came to me and I was with other supporters, we took pictures... I have my last picture with Senzo, I will always have that picture... He hugged me and said: 'This is my mom, I love you.' Then he goes. He came back three times, as if he was telling me, bye bye, mama, you won’t see me again."

Just over 24 hours later, Meyiwa would be gunned down at the home of his lover, Kelly Khumalo.

"I got a call from Zandi Khumalo. She called me and she said: 'Mama Joy, your boy is no more. He got an accident.' I screamed. I didn't even know where I went that day."

Meyiwa would later be declared dead at the Botshelong Hospital in Vosloorus.