The sixth state witness, Mthokozisi Thwala says he was tortured the whole night until the break of dawn after he was lured to a Pretoria Building by two police officers under the pretence that he was going to do an identity parade.
Thwala took the stand at the North Gauteng High court where the case against five men accused of killing Bafana Bafana captain Senzo Meyiwa is being heard. The men have pleaded not guilty to the murder of Meyiwa among other charges.
Thwala said two police officers fetched him from KwaZulu-Natal in 2019.
He said the two police officers informed him that there were people arrested in connection with Meyiwa’s murder and requested him to assist with an identity parade.
But when he arrived in Pretoria the two police officers left him in an office and two men came in and assaulted him.
Thwala said the men tied him up and suffocated him.
“From there one of the men opened a bag pack and he took out a rope. The rope looks like the one that is used to tie up a cow when about to be slaughtered. It is a big and strong rope. As I was lying on the floor and looking up they then turned me around so that I could lay on my chest. They tied up my hands at the back and then tied my feet. They then joined my hands and my feet and they tied them together.
“They took out a mat in the bag and they placed it underneath my private part. They took out a tube from the bag. They started tubing me. They closed my mouth as well as my nose holding the tube at the back, they suffocated me,” he added.
Thwala said he was assaulted and suffocated until he peed on himself.
Thwala, Kelly Khumalo, her sister Zandile, their mother Gladness, Longwe Twala and Tumelo Madlala were in the Vorsloorus house when Meyiwa was killed.
The soccer star was allegedly shot and killed in 2014 in what is said to be a robbery gone wrong.
