‘GAWUZELA’S SON: EXHIBITS LEFT BY SWALIMO MEMBERS

MBABANE – Zweli Simelane and Jabulani Simelane allege that they do not know their co-accused, Siphosethu Malinga, who is a member of Economic Freedom Fighters Swaziland.

Zweli informed the court that they had never seen him prior to their arrest. He alleged that they got to know him after their arrest. “I wish to state that the first accused (Malinga) is unknown to both myself and the second applicant herein. We have never met him in our lives and we only got to know of him upon our arrest.” Zweli informed the court that upon their arrest and during interrogation, the police informed them that Malinga led them to their residence at Phuzumoya, where they allegedly found a bag which contained a bulletproof vest inscribed ‘HMCS’ and two cellphones.

Police

“This is what led the police to then arrest us. It has not been said by the police whether the first accused implicated us in any manner whatsoever in the commission of any crimes and there is no way he could have done that because we do not even know him. We have no knowledge of the items allegedly found in our residence at Phuzumoya,” Zweli submitted. He said he recalled at some point being called by one Victor Simelane, who is the National Secretary of the Swaziland Liberation Movement (SWALIMO), informing him that there were certain members of the party who were stranded around his home area (Phuzumoya), and they were requesting for accommodation for the night so that they could proceed to their destination on the following day.

Zweli said he had no reason not to refuse with his house to accommodate them, because they were said to be members of SWALIMO - my father’s organisation. “Accordingly, I telephonically gave the permission to use my house since most of the time I am in Manzini, where I am running a bottle store business called One-Up Bottle Store and a number of construction projects based in Manzini. “I work there with my brother, the second applicant. When I gave permission for the usage of our lilawu back at home, which I share with the second applicant, both myself and the second applicant were at work in my business at One-Up Bottle Store.

“This was not the first time that I gave permission to accommodate members of my father’s organisation without even knowing who they were, but simply trusting the person calling to request for accommodation being in the leadership of the organisation,” said Zweli. He pointed out that he had no knowledge of the items allegedly found at their residence, which were purportedly linked to criminal and terrorism activities. “During interrogation and torture by the police, we were told that the items listed in the indictment were found in our house.

“The investigating officers told us that they were led to our house by the first accused, who informed them that the said items were in our house.
“Whether or not the first accused was among those who spent the night at our house, we do not know since we were not there. Apparently, the items which the police found in our house were left by the people to whom we gave accommodation. As already stated above, the first accused is unknown to us and we only met him for the first time when we were arrested and indicted in these proceedings,” he said. The bail application will be heard today.

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