Meyiwa trial: No witnesses placing one of the accused at crime scene, court hears

PRETORIA - The lawyer for an accused in the Senzo Meyiwa trial, who is seeking acquittal, has told the Pretoria High Court that there are no witnesses placing him at the crime scene.

Mthokoziseni Maphisa has brought a Section 174 discharge application to the Pretoria High Court.

It is a formal request in a South African criminal trial for the court to declare an accused person not guilty and discharge them from the charges, made at the close of the prosecution's case.

He believes the State has not led enough evidence to secure a conviction against him.

Maphisa and five others are being tried for Meyiwa’s 2014 murder at the home of his girlfriend in Vosloorus on the East Rand.

Maphisa’s lawyer, Advocate Zithulele Nxumalo, has spent hours poking holes in the State’s case to convince the court that there is no case against his client.

In the evidence led by the State, a witness, Constable Sizwe Zungu, claimed he saw Maphisa at the Basotho hostel on the day Meyiwa was killed, together with the other accused, and he claims to have seen him in the same group again in the evening just after the Bafana Bafana captain’s murder.

Zungu’s evidence is corroborated by a confession statement signed by another one of the accused, Bongani Ntanzi, which he has since denied making.

But Nxumalo has highlighted the evidence given by the neighbours and witnesses who testified that they saw the intruders running away from the house where Meyiwa was shot.

"I submit there is no witness or witnesses that place accused number 4 at or near the scene of the crime. The witnesses who testified did not implicate accused number 4 as one of the intruders."

If the court agrees with MaphIsa, the charges against him will be dropped and he will be acquitted.