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yesterday told the court that he gave literary translations to the messages contained in the fliers.

The detective said this yesterday when the treason trial of politicians, Paul Siwela, John Gazi and Charles Thomas, which was adjourned last month, resumed.

Detective Sergeant George Ngwenya, who has served the force for 30 years, told senior Bulawayo High Court judge Justice Nicholas Ndou sitting with Messrs Elliot Nyoni and Phanuel Damba that his understanding of the messages contained in the fliers meant that Mthwakazi Liberation Front wanted people to rise against the Government.

Det Sgt Ngwenya had difficulty in reading some of the Ndebele messages contained in the fliers like Vuka Mthwakazi, Vuka, which he said he understood to be urging members of the armed forces to rise against the Government.

He said he was disturbed by a map that he saw on an MLF calendar, which showed part of the country as Mthwakazi Republic with Bulawayo as the capital.

He told the court that on 4 March last year, he was on duty when they received information that Charles Thomas had been arrested in Entumbane and that he had allegedly told the police that they had held a meeting in Siwela’s office and that after the meeting he had been given some documents to distribute.

“I then applied for a search warrant in respect of Siwela’s offices and four officers accompanied me. We found him seated outside in his vehicle and I approached him and showed him the search warrant.

“I told him that we wanted to search his office for subversive documents. We went into the office and we recovered a bunch of fliers from a cabinet in his office. As I showed interest in the fliers he told me that he had many and handed over another bunch,” testified Det Sgt Ngwenya.

He said they continued with the search and came across an attendance register of people who had attended a meeting in Siwela’s office.

They proceeded to search Siwela’s vehicle after recovering a document headlined “Matabeleland Grand Plan” in the office and in the vehicle they recovered some membership cards and MLF calendars.

“I asked him for the minutes of the meeting and he told me that the minutes were with John Gazi. Having read through some of the fliers I then informed him that he was under arrest,” he testified being led by Messrs Samuel Pedzisai and Lovack Masuku, both from the Attorney General’s Office.

He said one of the fliers was talking about overthrowing oppressors and murderers and when pressed by the State counsels to explain who he understood the murderers and oppressors to be, Det Sgt Ngwenya said he understood it to mean the present Government.

It was his evidence that when they got to Bulawayo Central Police Station, they found Gazi in one of the offices and when asked about the minutes he quickly handed them over.

Earlier, another State witness, Sergeant Locadia Matoka, who was part of the team which arrested Gazi, gave evidence that contradicted what she had written in her sworn affidavit.

In the affidavit she swore to on 16 August last year, Sgt Matoka said while they were conducting a search in the sitting room, Gazi handed over to her 10 MLF fliers but during her evidence under oath yesterday she said the fliers were handed over to Sgt Patrice Nyanhete, who was the team leader.

“The truth is that he tried to hand over the fliers to me, but I told him to hand them over to Sgt Nyanhete since he was the team leader,” she said in response to a question from Advocate Sabelo Sibanda, of SKM Sibanda and Partners for Gazi.

Sgt Makota had a lot of difficulty in giving a description of the layout of Gazi’s residence and Adv Sibanda put it to her that she never got into the house.

In response she argued that she did not pay much attention to other details with  regards to the house and admitted that she never read the messages on the fliers, but only heard what was contained in them from Det Sgt Nyanhete.

She could not explain why she never mentioned a calendar in her sworn affidavit despite the fact that Adv Lucas Nkomo instructed by Mr Sindiso Mazibisa, of Cheda and Partners and Mr Robert Ndlovu, of R Ndlovu and Company, for Thomas and Siwela, had pointed it out to her that even Det Sgt Nyanhete’s sworn to affidavit did not mention the issue of the calendar.
The trial continues today with Adv Nkomo cross-examining Det Sgt Ngwenya.