A STATE witness' social media post may come back to bite her. This after the witness, who has only been identified as a "well-known performer", had her social media post used as evidence in the Senzo Meyiwa murder trial in the North Gauteng High Court on Wednesday, 17 May.
Lawyers into the matter made submissions that the state witness asked the court not to beam any images or audio of her during court proceedings. The witness is one of the people who was in the house when the Bafana Bafana and Orlando Pirates goalkeeper was gunned down in 2014.
State Advocate George Baloyi told the court that although the next witness is a performing artist, she is a normal witness with anxieties. He said the witness wants to testify in an atmosphere that is less intrusive.
Presiding Judge Tshifhiwa Maumela asked if the argument by the state was not in contradiction because the said witness doesn't want people to hear her testimony, but was active on social media on the matter.
Baloyi responded that the reason the witness took to social media to air views about her involvement in the case was that there was an onslaught against her on social media and she was defending herself.
Attorney Dan Rosengarten, who is representing the media, told the court that the witness has not shown any evidence that her life would be in danger if her testimony is heard in the media.
He said this was proven by the actions of the witness on social media platform by how she is engaging on the matter.
Rosengarten referred to an Instagram post, which the witness posted IN 2022.
The post read: "After work I had a late afternoon nap and had a dream where we as a family had decided ukuthi we don't want any media present in court when we testify, not even our voices should be heard angisho sinamanga so we don't wanna waste any more of the peoples time since si guilty already in their eyes so we rather testify to the court alone since they are the only ones who haven't found us guilty and the court said GRANTED, my biggest fear is that my dreams always come true......anyway asiyekeni amaphupho."
Rosengarten said this witness brought this application because of a dream and there is nowhere she says she fears for her life.
He told the court that this doesn't sound like a witness who is fearful for her life.
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Rosengarten said the application should be dismissed and that the electronic media should be allowed to televise the witness' testimony live.
Representing accused five, Advocate Zandile Mshololo, who also called for the application to be dismissed, argued that the constitutional right of society to have direct access to the court would be affected.
She further argued that the law required that even criminal proceedings are to be public.
"If the audio recording is not granted, then the public will get what is referred to as secondhand information from the few journalists who would be lucky to sit in this court," she said.
The matter has been postponed to Thursday, 18 May.
