Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Senzo: Murder of a Soccer Star’ on Netflix, An Investigation Into The Death of South African Soccer Star Senzo Meyiwa

The murder of South African soccer star Senzo Meyiwa in 2014 shocked his nation. The story only became more shocking, though, when doubts emerged about the motive, first believed to be a robbery gone wrong. In the new Netflix documentary miniseries Senzo: Murder of a Soccer Star, filmmakers examine the many questions that still remain about the star’s tragic and untimely death.

SENZO: MURDER OF A SOCCER STAR: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: The camera pans in on an empty soccer stadium, with the sound of a roaring crowd added in. Senzo Meyiwa provides a voice over, using archival interview footage from before his death in 2014. “God has plans,” he states, “life is tricky. It is unpredictable and hard to understand. Things don’t always happen the way we want them to. And that’s okay with me.”

The Gist: In October 2014, Senzo Meyiwa, a rising star goalkeeper for South African club team Orlando Pirates—and recently-crowned captain on the South African international team—was shot dead by intruders in an apparent home invasion. The murder shocked the nation, and Meyiwa was given a state funeral in his hometown of Durban. Many questions lingered about the circumstances of his death—was it a botched robbery, or an assassination? This six-part documentary series seeks to find answers on the still-unbelievable crime.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? A sports-centric version of the Robert Durst true-crime documentary miniseries The Jinx, or perhaps The Staircase.

Our Take: While the name Senzo Meyiwa may not ring bells for many American viewers, he was a household name in his home of South Africa; his shocking murder in 2014 during an apparent robbery might compare to the similar death of American football star Sean Taylor seven years earlier: a bright young star extinguished just as he was reaching the peak of his talents.

Even if you’re not familiar going in, though, Senzo: Murder of a Soccer Star does a good job bringing you up to speed quickly. It’s a tight, well-told procedural that methodically examines the various witnesses (and potential suspects) to the murder, including several of Senzo’s close friends, and his pop-star girlfriend Kelly Khumalo, as they tell sometimes-conflicting versions of what happened on the night of October 26th, 2014.’

Questions immediately arose about the circumstances of the murder, ostensibly a home-invasion robbery gone wrong. The house was cleaned before investigators even arrived on the crime scene, raising doubts about the motives of the people closest to Senzo and present at the time of his death. “We never found any bullet or cartridge,” one investigator laments, while another states flatly that “Senzo’s case was broken at that crime scene.”

Senzo’s father stoked those concerns, alleging publicly that “the person who killed Senzo was one of those in the house,” and pointing the finger specifically at Senzo’s friend Tumelo Madlala. Many others began to suspect nefarious motives by his Khumalo, who refused to cooperate fully with investigators. No arrests were made in the case until 2020, and even then, a good deal of doubt remains.

Amidst all this, the filmmakers pull off a difficult tightwire-walk by managing to humanize the victim in a way that many other true-crime stories fail to do, either by choice or by their own limitations. Senzo was famous, of course, so there’s plenty of film available to bring life to the dead here. Archival footage of the 27-year-old star excelling on the pitch or beaming a wide, infectious, optimistic smile in interviews paint a picture of a life cut short far too soon, and help to ground this story as not just a mystery to be solved but a tragedy to be absorbed.

That said, it’s a compelling mystery, one worthy of a game of Clue. There were seven people in the house when Senzo was murdered, and reason to doubt the public statements of all of them. Who killed Senzo Meyiwa?

Sex and Skin: None.

Parting Shot: As speculation swirls around the potential involvement of Senzo’s girlfriend Kelly Khumalo in his murder, she takes to television interviews to defend herself, while crowds demonstrate against her. The episode ends with an image of a newspaper headline, asking simply: “Did You Do It, Kelly?”

Sleeper Star:Much of the narrative in the first episode is driven by contemporaneous news footage, but important expert context is given in interviews by investigative journalist Mzilikazi Wa Africa, who studied the case closely.

Most Pilot-y Line: “Senzo’s life was like a safe,” an unseen narrator muses during an early montage of news coverage of his death, “where you go inside it and then you find another safe, and another safe.”

Our Call:STREAM IT. Even if you’d never heard the name Senzo before, Senzo: Murder Of a Soccer Star is a compelling, well-crafted true crime story.

Scott Hines is an architect, blogger and internet user who lives in Louisville, Kentucky with his wife, two young children, and a small, loud dog.