The Senzo Meyiwa murder trial resumes today, Monday, 23 June 2025, at the Pretoria High Court, where defence lawyer Advocate Charles Mnisi is set to continue his cross-examination of police Sergeant Moses Mabasa.
What to expect from the Senzo Meyiwa trial today
The testimony centers around a set of photographs downloaded from the memory card of accused number three, Mthobisi Mncube, which the state argues show him with dreadlocks and a gold tooth — a description given by witnesses to one of the intruders on the night Meyiwa was shot.
These photographs have become a critical point of contention in the trial. The state alleges that one image, dated 2 September 2014, depicts Mncube with a gold tooth. However, Mnisi argues that this timeline is incorrect, claiming Mncube was in custody at the time the photo was allegedly taken.
Mnisi told the court that his client insists the photograph in question was taken in 2012, two years before the incident. To support this, the defence produced prison records showing Mncube was arrested in January 2013 and released in mid-September 2014, more than two weeks after the date embedded in the photograph’s metadata.
Sergeant Mabasa, a data analyst with the police, testified that he retrieved the image from a Samsung GT phone memory card and relied on the metadata to determine the date.
During his cross-examination on Friday, he acknowledged that his task was to find images clearly showing the suspect’s teeth but admitted he had no specific expertise in identifying dental characteristics.
In court, Mnisi challenged Mabasa’s methods and asked whether it struck him as unusual to be assigned a task specifically to find teeth in photographs. Mabasa responded that he followed standard procedure and didn’t question the instruction.
Mnisi pressed further on Mabasa’s ability to identify a gold tooth, questioning whether a trained professional should have been called instead. Mabasa said he made a visual observation and notified the officer who made the request, Sergeant Mogola, for confirmation.
To demonstrate his understanding of gold, Mabasa pointed to the gold-coloured cover of the court interpreter’s diary as an example of what he believed the tooth resembled.
When asked whether his findings were scientifically accurate, Mabasa admitted that while it appeared gold to him, he could not confirm it with certainty.
As the trial continues today, the court will likely hear more on the credibility of the photographic evidence and the metadata’s reliability. Mnisi is expected to continue scrutinising the authenticity and context of the images presented by the state.
The photographs, if deemed credible, could play a key role in identifying Mncube as one of the individuals seen by witnesses fleeing the scene in Vosloorus, where Senzo Meyiwa, then goalkeeper for Orlando Pirates and Bafana Bafana, was fatally shot at the home of singer Kelly Khumalo’s mother.
Watch the Senzo Meyiwa trial live here
Today’s proceedings are expected to delve further into the metadata dispute surrounding the photographs, as the defence continues efforts to discredit their timeline and visual reliability in establishing the identity of the alleged intruder.
Tune into the live proceedings below:
