Clarity on second docket in the Senzo Meyiwa murder matter
31 August 2022
The purpose of this media release is to clear up misconceptions regarding the transfer of this docket, Vosloorus Cas 375/1/2019 from the Director of Public Prosecutions, Gauteng Local Division (Johannesburg) to the Director of Public Prosecutions, Gauteng Division Pretoria.
DPP (Pretoria) has indicated that the decision in this docket will be taken after the conclusion of the current trial, as credibility findings that might have been made by the trial court against the witnesses who were in the house at the time of the incident, will have to be taken into account.
Each DPP has a defined geographical area of jurisdiction within which he/she functions. A DPP can only decide and attend to a matter which emanates outside his/her area of jurisdiction when the National Director of Public Prosecutions (NDPP), in writing, directs that she deems it to be in the interests of justice that a docket be transferred from one jurisdiction to another, for purposes of investigation and decision making.
The NDPP transferred the main docket regarding the Senzo Meyiwa murder case, Vosloorus CAS 636/10/2014 from the jurisdiction of the DPP Johannesburg to that of Pretoria on 09 February 2020. She has now also transferred the second docket, Vosloorus CAS 375/1/2019, which is related to the first docket, on 22 August 2022.
Counsel in the case had enquired what the decision in the second case docket (Voslooorus CAS 375/1/2019) is.
It has been incorrectly reported by some media houses that the National Prosecuting Authority has made an about-turn regarding the second docket, Vosloorus Cas 375/1/2019 when it announced that the decision in that docket will be taken by the DPP Pretoria, after finalisation of the current trial reading the main docket.
It is important to mention that the second docket was opened on 22 January 2019 by two police officers who were part of the initial investigating team, when there was an impasse in the investigation. Those police officers were apparently frustrated by the lack of progress in the investigation and probably thought that the six witnesses who were in the house when the incident happened were not truthful when they mentioned that the attackers intruded in the house.They apparently thought that the witnesses were concealing the truth about the true identity of the killer of Mr Senzo Meyiwa as such killer(s) could not be identified or found. A wrong suspect was also pointed out during an identification parade.
However, a breakthrough came in May 2020 when the current accused were identified. So the initial suspicion that the two police officers had, were superceded by the identification of the suspects in this case in May 2020 and their subsequent arrest.
The NPA adopted a prosecutorial strategy that a decision be made after all evidence is led during trial and findings thereon, which will inform an assessment of what will transpire.
Issued by Lumka Mahanjana, NPA Regional Spokesperson, Gauteng Division: Pretoria, 31 August 2022
