Senzo Meyiwa murder trial: Accused set for dental examination to determine if he had a gold tooth
This is after the State led evidence on one of Mncube’s pictures last week, showing what seems to be a gold tooth, in a bid to match descriptions given by some witnesses.
Judge Ratha Mokgoatlheng presides over the re-start of the Senzo Meyiwa murder trial on 17 July 2023. Picture: Xanderleigh Dookey Makhaza/Eyewitness News
JOHANNESBURG - The dental examination of one of the accused in the Senzo Meyiwa trial is set to take centre stage in the Pretoria High Court on Tuesday morning.
The defence is expected to bring an application for Mthobisi Mncube’s teeth to be examined to determine whether he ever had a gold tooth.
This is after the State led evidence on one of Mncube’s pictures last week, showing what seems to be a gold tooth, in a bid to match descriptions given by some witnesses.
Mncube is the alleged gunman and one of five men accused of the football star’s 2014 murder.
Mncube looks nearly nothing like the description that witnesses gave of one of the alleged intruders who murdered Meyiwa.
As he sits in the dock, there is no evidence of the shoulder-length dreadlocks he once wore and no sign of a gold tooth in his wide smile.
But the State has shown old pictures of Mncube where he had dreads and also what looks like a gold incision on one of his side teeth.
Without giving their version on whether or not Mncube ever had a gold tooth, his lawyer, Advocate Charles Mnisi, has asked the court for him to be taken for a dental examination to establish if he ever had a gold tooth.
"He requests that if the State were to take him to a district surgeon, he will also request permission from this court that he should also be allowed to be examined by a private dental surgeon," said Mnisi.
But Judge Ratha Mokgoatlheng said that a mere request was not enough, instructing Mnisi and his colleagues in the defence to prepare a formal application for this request based on the law.