The prosecution case against the ten men from Natal accused of recruiting young men for military training with the ANC closed on 19 October after 36 days during which 80 witnesses had been called. The judge claimed he had no power to order the release of the remaining detainees connected with the case who had neither been accused nor brought as state witnesses.
Further prosecution witnesses included a number of elderly women who had been active in the ANC before 1960. One was Mrs. Merica Mthunywa, aged 70, formerly regional charman of the ANC Women's League, who was arrested on 13 April and held in solitary confinement. She had been repeatedly questioned until she became confused and her first statement was rejected as 'unsatisfactory'.
Other witnesses were young men said to have been recruited either by those on trial or by Joseph Mdluli the alleged accomplice killed in police custody. These included Jabulani Mdluli, aged 19 and a relative of Joseph, who stated that he and six others had been smuggled over the border on the night of 18 March and told they were going for military training. At dawn these seven left the house in Manzini where they had been taken and went to the police. Later the same day Joseph Mdluli was arrested in Durban.
Also arrested was Samson Lukele, the Durban taxi driver who said he had been employed to ferry the recruits to the border. The first trip took place on 11 March, when four youths had crossed into Swaziland, and the second on 18 March, as outlined above. After his arrest Lukele was told to go ahead with plans for a third trip on 25 March, with eight policemen acting as substitute 'recruits', including four whites with their faces blacked. At the border fence Lukele met Joseph Nduli, one of the accused, who told him that the previous week's group had gone to the police. Then, according to Lukele's evidence, he returned to his vehicle and shortly afterwards saw Nduli and another man inside South African territory struggling with the police decoys until they were overpowered and tied up. The defence cross examination suggested that as he made contact across the fence Lukele shouted to the police who climbed the fence and grabbed the two men, with assistance from police hiding inside Swaziland territory. Then Nduli and Ndhlovu were bound and gagged and taken in police vehicles to a camp near the sea, where they were interrogated.
Griffiths Mxenge, the lawyer detained from March to July, declined to give evidence relating to a cheque he had cashed for G.J. Zuma (cited as co-conspirator) on the grounds that he had acted professionally for Zuma and virtually all the accused. After the defence admitted the facts relating to the cheque, Mxenge was excused from giving evidence.
When the trial resumed on 15 November the defence case opened with a statement to the effect that the purpose of the recruiting had been for training in trade union organization and not military training as alleged. A large part of the defence case would also rest on the unreliability of the prosecution evidence, which was dictated to suit police purposes. Many of the witnesses had no knowledge of the things they claimed.
The first of the accused to give evidence was Harry Gwala, who has had four banning orders imposed on him and lost his job at Edenvale Hospital for distributing SACTU pamphlets. Formerly he was SACTU organiser in Pietermaritzburg. To the court he outlined the legislative removal of workers' rights under South African law. He asserted that the recruiting had been planned as part of the revival of SACTU, about which he had spoken with Azaria Ndebele and Anthony Xaba (both accused). The evidence given against him by trade union organiser Harold Nxasana had been extracted by terror, he claimed.
William Khanyile, another accused, described how he had been stripped and assaulted by police on the day of his arrest. He denied all connections with the ANC since its banning in 1960.
Mathews Meyiwa claimed that SACTU was still alive in the minds of African workers. He described a meeting in 1975 with Gwala and some others at which the possibility of sending people for union training outside the country was discussed. A network of 12 organisers in Natal was envisaged. He also said the police had told him to admit to forming an ANC cell in Hammarsdale, and described the conditions under which he was detained.
Two other witnesses called for the defence were Barney Dladla, formerly with the Kwazulu executive council, who spoke of the need for African worker representation in trade unions, and Selby Msimang, aged about 90 and a founder member of the ANC in 1912. He spoke of the struggle for workers' rights, and said that he was now working with Chief Buthelezi's Inkatha movement, which sent young people out of the country to study.
