The alibi provided by Bongani Sandiso Ntanzi for the night of Senzo Meyiwa’s murder has come under scrutiny. Ntanzi is one of the five men accused in the October 2014 murder of the soccer star and had been identified as the intruder who had a confrontation with Meyiwa that fateful night.
During a recent court hearing in Pretoria, an HR manager at Sibanye Stillwaters’ gold division, where Ntanzi was employed at the time, stated that Ntanzi did not report for duty on that fateful night. In his bail application last year, Ntanzi had sworn in an affidavit that he was at work at the Rustenburg mine on the night of the murder.
But HR manager Hendrik Louis Mulder told the court Ntanzi was “not rostered to be at work that day”.
Additionally, during the testimony, it was revealed that Ntanzi had applied for unpaid leave from October 27, which was the day after the murder, until October 31, 2014, citing personal problems. His request for five days of leave was approved by his supervisor.
At the time, Ntanzi worked as a stoping labourer and had been with the company since April 18, 2009. The court heard that Ntanzi was employed by the company until February 18, 2016, when he was terminated for absconding.
The mine’s system report, which logs the clock-in and clock-out records of workers, was presented as evidence. This report indicated that Ntanzi was not on the premises on the night in question.
The examination of Ntanzi’s clocking records also revealed that on Saturday, October 25, 2014, the day before the murder, he had not completed a full shift. He had clocked in around 3:55 am and clocked out around 06:01 am, which meant he had worked for only about two hours that day.
Mulder confirmed that there were no further clocking records for Ntanzi between October 26 and November 1, 2014.
He explained that the normal Saturday shift at the mine was typically four hours, and anything less would be considered a half shift.
The next recorded clocking of Ntanzi was on November 2 at 9:15 pm.
In Ntanzi’s defense, his attorney, Sipho Ramosepele, pointed out that the Sunday when Ntanzi didn’t clock in was a non-working day for him, as specified in his contract, which Mulder confirmed. Ramosepele also argued that on the other days Ntanzi didn’t clock in, it was because he was on leave and had traveled home.
Must read: Dr. Matthew Lani in hot water for faking his career
“I can confirm his non-clocking was because he was on leave but I cannot confirm his whereabouts,” Mulder said.
Ramosepele further clarified that Ntanzi didn’t clock in on Saturday, November 1, because it was his scheduled Saturday off, having worked the previous Saturday before he left. Mulder confirmed that the company’s employees typically worked one Saturday and had the next one off.
Ramosepele continued to defend his client, explaining that Ntanzi left early on November 25 because he had received permission from his supervisor. He argued that it was a common practice for individuals traveling out of the province to obtain prior approval from their supervisor to leave early.
However, Mulder did not confirm or deny the existence of such an arrangement, stating it would be unfair for him to make a judgment on the matter.
Mulder confirmed that, in this particular case, there was no documented permission for Ntanzi to leave early, and leaving without permission could result in the company taking disciplinary action.
In response to the situation, Judge Ratha Mokgoatlheng requested that Mulder provide Ntanzi’s payslip along with an affidavit as part of the ongoing proceedings.
Must read: Mpumalanga woman who ran over husband to remain behind bars
