Siwela turns fugitive

Leonard Ncube  Court Reporter
PAUL Siwela, an executive member of separatist pressure group Mthwakazi Liberation Front (MLF), yesterday missed a key date in his treason trial and is now on the run.
A judge was due to rule on Siwela’s application to have the treason case thrown out before he is put to his defence, but a letter from the 49-year-old was in fact read in which he told the Bulawayo High Court that he was out of the country, fleeing what he claimed were death threats.

Siwela appears to have taken full advantage of the relaxation of bail conditions by the Attorney General’s Office to skip the country.

His lawyers said they had failed to locate him.

For the State, Lovack Masuku, who is being assisted by Samuel Pedzisayi from the AG’s Office, told Justice Nicholas Ndou that they could not service summons on Siwela as his whereabouts are unknown.

“Siwela was not personally served with summons. On August 24, 2013, he sent a correspondence to the effect that he is out of the country. The State wishes to apply for a warrant of apprehension because he removed himself from the jurisdiction of the court,” said Masuku.

In the letter, Siwela indicated that he feared for his life and had to leave the country.

Justice Ndou, who resigned from the bench on December 31 last year but is back to clear his cases, immediately issued a warrant of arrest.

Siwela, a losing presidential candidate in the 2002 elections, Charles Thomas, 44, and war veteran John Gazi, 54, have pleaded not guilty to the main charge of treason and the alternative charge of seeking the overthrow of a constitutionally elected government.

They are all members of the MLF which advocates the secession of the Matabeleland region from the rest of the country.

Justice Ndou yesterday dismissed the application for discharge at the close of the State’s case in respect of Thomas while acquitting Gazi on the grounds that the State had failed to prove a case against him.

In respect of Thomas, Justice Ndou said the evidence in court proved the State had a prima facie case against him.

He said the evidence of two police officers who arrested him showed that indeed he had distributed fliers agitating for a public uprising against the government and should be put to his defence.

“The act of running away and the recovery of fliers made some inference that the accused was distributing the fliers. Even without considering the evidence of other witnesses, the available evidence proves a prima facie case against accused one and all issues will be heard in defence, the application for discharge is dismissed,” said Justice Ndou.

Thomas will be put to his defence on January 7 next year.

Justice Ndou highlighted the essential elements of treason – inciting any other person to do an act against a government or conspiring with another person or assisting any other person inside or outside the country to do such act.

Turning to Gazi, who is now a free man, Justice Ndou said his case was materially different as he was not found distributing fliers.

He said the State was supposed to establish credible evidence that he conspired with the other MLF members.

The judge explained: “The State says accused three did something beyond just being a member but all we have is that they searched his place and recovered calendars and a Gukurahundi CD. There’s no evidence that he sent the first accused to distribute the fliers or that he’s linked to him. The State failed to clarify issues and there is confusion because the witnesses could not specify which fliers they recovered from him.

“As such the State failed to establish a prima facie case against him. He’s discharged at the close of the State’s case.”

Gazi was represented by Nonhlanhla Moyo while Robert Ndlovu stood on behalf of Thomas and Siwela in the absence of his colleagues Sindiso Mazibisa and Advocate Lucas Nkomo.

The three MLF leaders denied that they ever at one time between March 1 and 3, 2011, acted in common purpose and conspired with any person to incite Zimbabweans or a section of them to rise against the government.

The State alleges that Thomas distributed fliers which contained messages calling on members of the public and the army to rise against the government.