Home | News | BACEDE, MTHANDENI ADMIT SOME CROWN’S EVIDENCE

BACEDE, MTHANDENI ADMIT SOME CROWN’S EVIDENCE

Font size: Decrease font Enlarge font

MBABANE – Incarcerated Members of Parliament (MPs) Mduduzi Bacede Mabuza and Mthandeni Dube yesterday made a formal admission to some of the evidence presented by the Crown.

They made the formal admission in terms of Section 272 of the Criminal Procedure and Evidence Act No.67 of 1939. Section 272(1) provides that: “In any criminal proceedings, the accused or his representative in his presence may admit any fact relevant on the issue and any such admission shall be sufficient evidence of such. The two MPs admitted that in early 2021, they raised in Parliament the issue of amending Section 67(1) and 67(3) of the Constitution of the Kingdom of Eswatini. Mabuza and Dube further admitted that they appeared on three Facebook videos which had been marked exhibit 1-2.

Facebook

“Except for Facebook video 2, in respect of which the first part was not downloaded and transferred onto DVD (Digital Visual Disc), the three Facebook videos were correctly downloaded onto the DVD,” reads part of the admission filed by their lawyer yesterday.  They told the court that they were admitting the authenticity of the three Facebook videos. The MPs agreed that the videos could be handed in to court and received as exhibit 1, 2 and 3. It was further their admission that Mabuza and Mduduzi ‘Magawugawu’ Simelane appeared in a Facebook video on June 24, 2021 at Summerfield. Simelane was declared a fugitive from justice by the Royal Eswatini Police Service (REPS).

The two MPs further admitted that Facebook video four was correctly downloaded and transferred onto a DVD. Mabuza admitted that his cellphone was taken by the police after his arrest on July 25, 2021 and nothing was retrieved from it.  Dube on the other hand, admitted that his cellphone was taken by the police and various messages set out in exhibit five were recovered from his phone. They agreed that exhibit five could be handed into court. As part of its evidence, the prosecution provided about 244 WhatsApp messages between Mabuza Dube. The messages, which are contained in a 72-page document, were retrieved from the duo’s cellphones which were seized by the police after the Members of Parliament’s (MPs) arrest on July 25, 2021. In one of the messages sent on July 21, 2021, Mabuza told Dube that things were getting serious and they must consider leaving the country.

Inciting

This was four days before they were arrested and charged for, among other charges, inciting members of the public to revolt against a constitutionally established government and bringing hatred to His Majesty King Mswati III. On the same day, Mabuza sent another message to Dube expressing his support for the idea of military training services. In one of the messages, Dube purportedly told Mabuza that he could not wait for military training. They also confirm that they had sight of the post-mortem reports relating to the deceased mentioned in the indictment in counts two and three, Thando Shongwe and Siphosethu Mtshali.

They further attested the cause of death as described in the post-mortem report was that the deceased suffered fatal injuries on June 29, 2021at Hilltop, Mbabane in a motor vehicle accident. They agreed that the two post- mortem reports relating to the deceased mentioned in counts two and three may be handed in as exhibits six and seven. Among other documents, the Crown had them with was the post-mortem reports of the two people who died in an accident at Hilltop involving a motor vehicle from Sincephetelo Motor Vehicle Accident Fund (SMVAF).  The prosecution further gave them statements of six witnesses as well as a police report with an accident sketch and a vehicle inspection report.

In one of the alternative charges contained in the amended indictment, the MPs are alleged to have murdered Siphosethu Mtshali and Thando Shongwe on June 29, 202. According to the post-mortem reports, which now form part of the evidence, Mtshali and Shongwe died due to multiple injuries. Another charge in the amended indictment are that the MPs allegedly committed a terrorist act by encouraging people in public statements to disobey the lawful banning by the Government of Eswatini of the delivery of petitions and to reject the appointment of the then Acting Prime Minister, Themba Masuku.

It is alleged that by so doing, they encouraged civil disobedience, which had one or more of the following intentions or consequences; death or bodily injury, serious damage to property, serious risk to the health of the public or the section of the public and endangering the lives of the people and was designed or intended to disrupt the provision of essential emergency services such as police, civil defence and medical services.

As a consequence of the alleged conduct of the accused persons, according to the indictment, there were riots in all regions of the country which resulted in loss of life, bodily injuries to people and destruction of private and public property. As a first and second alternative to the count of allegedly encouraging people to disobey the banning of delivery of petitions, Mabuza and Dube, on June 24, 2021 at or near Summerfield, allegedly committed seditious acts by encouraging people in public statements to disobey a lawful banning order by government and to reject the appointment of the then acting prime minister.
By so doing, according to the charge, they allegedly caused hatred against the King and government, raised dissatisfaction among the King’s subjects or inhabitants of Eswatini, disaffection against the administration of justice and promoted feelings of ill-will and hostility between different classes of the population of Eswatini.

Comments (0 posted):

Post your comment comment

Please enter the code you see in the image: