The treason trial of three Mthwakazi Liberation Front (MLF) leaders resumed yesterday with the eighth witness professing ignorance over the nature of the exhibits they allegedly collected from party secretary-general Paul Siwela’s offices when the investigations started.
The witness, a police officer identified as Isheunesu Kadziya, told the court that although he was part of the investigating team that searched Siwela’s office on March 4, 2011, he was not aware of what was contained in the alleged subversive flyers, calendars and a party grand plan document they seized. The MLF leaders — Siwela, Charles Thomas and former secretary-general John Gazi are denying the treason charges.
The trio are appearing before High Court judge Justice Nicholas Ndou sitting with assessors Fanuel Damba and Elliot Nyoni.
“We recovered 400 flyers in nine bundles, a blue MLF T-shirt, a grand plan,” he said. “In his (Siwela’s) car, we recovered a Mthwakazi calendar and some MLF membership cards. We took Siwela and the exhibits to the Law and Order Section at the police station.”
When Advocate Lucas Nkomo, representing Siwela and Thomas, cross-examined Kadziva, he said the recovered material was handed over to Detective Sergeant George Ngwenya who arrested Siwela.
“There was no time we counted the flyers, but Ngwenya indicated that there were about 400,” Kadziva said. “I did not read the flyers, but I only scanned through one of them addressed to the national army encouraging them to desert the force.”
Kadziva disowned the flyers which were presented in court saying they were not the ones he recovered from Siwela.
Kadziva said he never saw the search warrant they used to comb Siwela’s place and never knew its contents.
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At the adjournment of the case in May, Advocate Sabelo Sibanda, representing Gazi, completed cross-examining Ngwenya who could not remember the flyers discussed at the adjournment of the case in May.
