Evidence given on Meyiwa bullet backed by second expert
A second ballistics expert has corroborated earlier evidence given by a state witness in the Senzo Meyiwa murder trial.
Warrant Officer Cornelius Roeloefse took to the stand in the High Court in Pretoria on Friday.
Christiaan Mangena, who is also a police ballistics expert, told the court the bullet that killed Meyiwa lost momentum after piercing through the football star’s chest.
Mangena also testified that the bullet hit the door, whereafter it landed on the kitchen counter.
The bullet, which killed Meyiwa in October 2014, has been a bone of contention between the state and the defence in the trial against the five men accused of killing the former Bafana Bafana captain.
Roloefse, who also served as a ballistics expert in the South African Police Service, supported Mangena’s version of events.
Roloefse worked on the Cleveland case in which accused number three, Mthobisi Mncube, was convicted of guilty of killing an Alexandra taxi boss in 2016.
“You see my Lord, when I look at the shape there (at the door), it looks like the shape of a bullet,” Roelofse said.
“It seems like it moved to the side and damaged the wood fragments. I was not at the crime scene or post-mortem. I don’t know what type of bullet this was.”
“According to Christian Mangena, it was a CMJ, the ones you have,” replied defence attorney Sipho Ramosepele.
“My Lord, it seems to me that it was an unstable bullet. Some of the energy must have been dumped as it went through the body of the deceased,” added Roloefse.
The bullet and the gun that killed Meyiwa have been at the centre of the high-profile trial.
The defence counsels for all five accused believe that the bullet found on the kitchen counter was planted by the police officers who first responded to the scene.
Forensic expert Thabo Mosia, who was first called on the scene four hours after Meyiwa was killed, did not find any trace of the bullet on the counter.
However, his colleague Thobeka Mhlahlo, who is also an experienced forensic specialist, managed to find the bullet a day after Meyiwa was killed, behind some glass jars in the kitchen.
The state is expected to call in a new witness on Monday.
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