JUST IN: Court orders Correctional Services to remove Senzo Meyiwa murder-accused from solitary confinement
The High Court in Pretoria has ruled that one of the men arrested for the 2014 brutal murder of Bafana Bafana captain Senzo Meyiwa be moved urgently from solitary confinement.
Mthobisi Prince Mncube and co-accused Fisokuhle Ntuli had approached the superior court on an urgent basis, seeking to be removed from the solitary confinement they are subjected to by the Department of Correctional Services.
On Tuesday, the court ruled in Mncube’s favour but struck the application by Ntuli off the roll – citing lack of urgency.
Judge Jan Swanepoel noted that Mncube’s continued incarceration at Kgosi Mampuru II’s dreaded C-Max section of the prison was affecting his mental wellbeing.
Ncube’s legal team has recently told the court in the Senzo Meyiwa murder trial that the accused man has been kept in solitary confinement for more than four years.
Swanepoel ruled that any further solitary confinement of Mncube would be unlawful.
The court ruled that Mncube would remain in a maximum security prison, will still stand trial and there was no evidence that the respondent’s (Department of Correctional Services) operations may be compromised.
Meyiwa was killed while visiting his girlfriend and the mother of his child, singer Kelly Khumalo, in Vosloorus.
In the house that fateful day were Meyiwa, Kelly and her younger sister, Zandile, their mother Ntombi Khumalo, Longwe Twala, Meyiwa’s friends Mthokozisi Thwala and Tumelo Madlala, Kelly’s then four-year-old son, Christian, and Thingo, her daughter with Meyiwa.
Five men - Mncube, Mthokoziseni Maphisa, Ntuli, Muzikawukhulelwa Sibiya, and Bongani Ntanzi are facing charges of murder, attempted murder, robbery with aggravating circumstances, possession of an unlicensed firearm as well as possession of ammunition for the 2014 murder of Meyiwa. All of the accused men have pleaded not guilty.
IOL