Johannesburg - Bafana Bafana player Senzo Meyiwa’s childhood friend Mthokozisi Thwala described his brutal assault and torture at the hands of officers investigating the October 2014 murder.
Thwala told the High Court in Pretoria yesterday that two officers came to fetch him from Umlazi in 2019 under the pretext of having made some arrests and wanting him to be part of an Identification Parade in Joburg.
He said along the way he noticed that they had gone past Joburg and were actually in Pretoria.
Upon arriving at the offices, he said he was left alone in one of the rooms, where two officers arrived and grabbed his phone, demanding to know who he was talking to.
“Ya, who killed Meyiwa?” Thwala said the officers asked, and upon attempting to respond, they assaulted him with open hands.
Thwala told the court that the officers assaulted him, to the point where it seemed they were alleging it was he who had killed Meyiwa.
“I kept apologising, not knowing what I was apologising for. Then they said, if I don’t want to talk, I will have to write down a statement.”
Just as he was about to breathe a sigh of relief after one of the men left the room, he said things only took a turn for the worse as he returned with a backpack.
From there, Thwala alleged, the officers proceeded to assault him, hitting him on the back and the front part of his body and trampling him with their boots.
He said the officers, who were taking turns to assault him, then took items out of the backpack, tied his hands and feet, and proceeded to tube him, closing his nose and mouth and suffocating him.
“Those police abused me very much so, including Ms Buthelezi, as she was the driving force behind all of this. Abusing me for six hours, and I was urinating (on) myself, and they knew why they put that mat underneath me.”
He added: “What hurt me the most is that the people meant to protect us are the ones who ended up abusing me.”
Earlier in the day, he told the court that by the time they arrived at the hospital, he could tell that Meyiwa was about to die or that his spirit was just about to leave his body.
Thwala said he noticed this when he performed an exercise while holding Meyiwa in the backseat of his BMW X6 upon their arrival at the Botshelong local clinic.
“I picked up his hand, but I could see him just letting go, and he wasn’t gasping for air anymore. I could tell he was dead or about to die.”
The trial surrounds the 2014 murder of Meyiwa in what has been alleged to be a botched robbery.
Muzikawukhulelwa Sibiya, Bongani Sandiso Ntanzi, Mthobisi Prince Mncube, Mthokoziseni Maphisa and Sifisokuhle are on trial for the murder.
The trial continues today with Thwala’s testimony.
The Star