Senzo Meyiwa Trial: SAPS phone expert expected to add details about Kelly Khumalo link with accused number 5

THE Gauteng North High Court is on Friday expected to hear more details about how Kelly Khumalo was allegedly in contact with accused 5, Fisokuhle Ntuli, just a fortnight before her lover Senzo Meyiwa was gunned down at her mother's house.

The former Bafana Bafana and Orlando Pirates goalkeeper was gunned down at his lover's Vosloorus home on October 26, 2014.

He had been in a love triangle with Kelly Khumalo and his customary wife, Mandisa Mkhize.

The late soccer star and Kelly Khumalo had a child together, Thingo.

State advocate George Baloyi is expected to lead evidence with the SAPS phone expert, Colonel Lambertus Steyn, who is an analyst at the SAPS Cold Case Unit.

Steyn told the court on Thursday that cellphone records showed Kelly Khumalo and Ntuli were in contact on October 15, 2014, at 5.33pm in a 98 second phone call.

They were also in contact on Kelly Khumalo's 082 704 **** number on August 2, 2014, at 10.40pm, for 110 seconds.

She had received both calls in Kimberley and rural Limpopo, cellphone records showed. Ntuli had used his 073 305 **** number to make the calls.

Steyn used multiple data sources, including TrueCaller, RICA, eNATIS, credit bureaus - XDS Expert Decisions System, the police data administration to verify all the numbers of the accused and those of the people who were in the house.

The five accused are Muzikawukhulelwa Sthemba Sibiya, Bongani Sandiso Ntanzi, Mthobisi Prince Ncube, Mthokoziseni Ziphozonke Maphisa, and Fisokuhle Nkani Ntuli. They are accused one to five, in that order.

The people who were in the house that day were Meyiwa, Kelly and her younger sister, Zandile, their mother Ntombi Khumalo (MaKhumalo), Longwe Twala, Meyiwa’s friends, Mthokozisi Thwala and Tumelo Madlala, Kelly’s then 4-year-old son, Christian, and Thingo, her daughter with Meyiwa.

Data findings

Steyn started working on the Meyiwa murder case in April 2020, when the investigating officer Brigadier Bongani Gininda handed him cellphone downloads and a Section 205.

A Section 205 allows police to obtain cellphone records from a telecommunications service provider through a subpoena or court order.

Steyn was instructed to profile the targets, which were the five accused and the people who were in the house when Meyiwa was murdered to find out if any of them.

Steyn established at least two phone calls between Kelly Khumalo and accused five, Ntuli.

He also found that Kelly Khumalo wiped her phone clean at 1:31am on October 27, 2014, just hours after Meyiwa was shot dead.

He also told the court he was unaware when police had retrieved her cellphone, but explained that the phone data could be wiped remotely with an internet connection.

On Friday, Steyn, a career policeman for 41 years, who also told the court he was a movements detection expert, is expected to shed light to the court about possible close contacts between Kelly Khumalo and accused 5, Ntuli.

Steyn testified on Thursday that he had extensive court experience, and that he had testified in at least 50 cases in the regional courts and about five cases in the high court.

Skilled

Steyn holds a BTech in Policing from Unisa specialising in police investigations and administration, which he passed with distinction, and various specialised short course policing and forensics certificates in basic movements detection, chart explorer, investigative solutions, crime intelligence design skills, lie detector, intelligence analysis, crime detection management, financial intelligence, Windeed information system, and an advanced course on fundamental analysis.

Steyn has told the court that he found eight cellphone and landline numbers linked to Kelly Khumalo and that her 082 704 **** number, which had been in contact with Ntuli, was also registered in her name on TrueCaller and on RICA.

The trial resumes at 10am on Friday.

Meanwhile, on August 30, 2020, a City Press report alleged that police officers believed that a hit man was involved in the alleged premeditated murder of Meyiwa and that the musician Kelly Khumalo had hired hitmen to allegedly assassinate the footballer.

It said R250,000 had been wagered on the hit, but the full amount was never paid, with one hit man saying he was paid R45,000 in cash.

It claimed the motive for the killing centred around Meyiwa reneging on a promise to marry Kelly Khumalo.

It also said Kelly Khumalo and the alleged hit man had met at a shopping mall in the east of Joburg, weeks before Meyiwa's death.

Former State prosecutor Advocate Gerry Nel, who had a watching brief on behalf of the Meyiwa family, said in April last year that he believed that the accused in the case were the right suspects, but he always believed more people should have been arrested for the crime of killing Meyiwa.

He said at the time that he had been briefed extensively by the SAPS, who were aware of who the alleged mastermind was behind the murder.

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