A police sketch plan drawn on the night of a shooting outside a Centurion golf estate does not record a Ferrari at the scene, contains no 9mm cartridge casings and shows no blood marks, the Johannesburg High Court heard on Thursday.
In each respect departing from the account given by the State’s first witness.
Security officer Bethwell Mzamo Cele has testified that he fired 15 rounds from a 9mm pistol at attackers in August 2022, that a red Ferrari was parked at the scene, and that he believed he had wounded one of the gunmen.
Cross-examining on behalf of accused No. 3, Vusimuzi “Cat” Matlala, Advocate Van den Heever took the witness through the investigating officer’s sketch plan.
She pointed out that the sketch plan records only a single VW Golf and makes no mention of a Ferrari.
It also records 21 cartridge casings, all identified as having been fired from AK-47 rifles, with none linked to a 9mm pistol.
No blood marks appear on it.
The crime scene management document likewise makes no mention of a Ferrari, of 9mm casings, or of the side-mirror cover and broken glass Cele has said he saw and photographed.
Van den Heever added that the defence had consulted a ballistics expert who disputed Cele’s evidence about what a 9mm round could penetrate.
Cele told the court he was disappointed by what the sketch plan showed, maintaining that his own documents did refer to the Ferrari.
He asked that the officer who drew the sketch be called to explain it, saying that person was the one “making this case messy.
The session also saw Cele broaden his allegations about how his statements were recorded.
When confronted with a paragraph stating that he could hear bullets being fired at him, Cele distanced himself from the wording, replying: “That’s the typist’s problem, not my problem.”
Pressed on why police would record something he had not said, he replied that they had written it that way “because they didn’t want this matter to exist”.
He said that the typed statement had been printed somewhere and brought to him only for signature.
Van den Heever put it to him directly that he was “blatantly lying to this court” and that she would ask the Court to discard his evidence. But Cele maintained his position.
On Wednesday he had told the court his statement had been altered by police, describing it as “fraud”.
Cele was stood down before completing his evidence. The court granted the State’s application to adjourn his re-examination to a later date, with the new date to be confirmed by the prosecution.
Attention now turns to a second State witness, Frederick Christiaan Shepherd sworn in on Thursday afternoon, whose evidence relates to the arrest of accused No 1, Musa Kekana.
The State told the court the witness is a private security who observed the arrest and said parts of his evidence amount to hearsay. The State also asked the court to provisionally admit those portions, subject to a later ruling.
That signal drew an immediate response. Advocate Riaan Gissing, who will cross-examine first, told the court he would apply for a trial-within-a-trial, saying the evidence raises questions of admissibility.
A trial-within-a-trial is a self-contained hearing in which the court determines whether disputed evidence may be admitted at all, before the main trial proceeds.
Its use would shift the focus from the shootings to the admissibility of the evidence when the trial resumes, echoing the disputes over video footage and photographs that dominated much of the first week.
Shepherd has asked that his privacy be respected and that he not be photographed.
The witness has asked that his privacy be respected and requested that he not be photographed.
The court resumes at 11:30 on Friday.
