Former crime intelligence boss Richard Mdluli is not backing down on his bid to have the SA Police Service foot the bill for his legal fees in his ongoing fraud and corruption case.
The case was postponed again at the Pretoria High Court on Tuesday to allow Mdluli to respond to the pre-trial agenda and provide an update to the court on the status of the review application concerning his legal fees.
The spokesperson for the National Prosecuting Authority’s (NPA) investigating directorate, Sindisiwe Seboka, said: “This is to allow Mdluli to provide an update to the court on the progress of the review application by his former employer [SAPS] to fund his legal fees. The postponement is also to provide Mdluli an opportunity to respond to the pre-trial agenda.”
Mdluli faces charges of fraud, corruption and theft related to the police’s secret slush fund. He is accused alongside former supply chain manager Heine Bernard and former financial officer of State Security Agency Solomon Lazurus.
Mdluli and his allies were keepers of the state’s secret slush fund allocated to the crime intelligence by the National Treasury for the prevention of crime, which they allegedly abused during their time at the helm between 2008 and 2012.
The allegations include payments Mdluli made to fund private trips to China and Singapore, the private use of witness protection houses, the leasing out of his private residence to the state to pay for his bond, and the conversion of properties for personal use.
In August, the high court granted the NPA an order to retain over R13-million worth of assets belonging to Mdluli and his allies.
Seboka said at the time that Mdluli’s former and current wives, Theresa Lyons and Vusiwane Mdluli, John and Heena Appalsami (of Daez Trading, acting as letting agent), Heine Barnard’s wife Juanita Barnard, and Solomon Lazarus’ wife Sandra Lazarus are also implicated.
“The restraint is premised on the fraud, theft, and corruption case reinstated by the state on 26 August 2020. The matter pertains to charges of gross abuse of the police crime intelligence slush fund, which ultimately benefited Richard Mdluli and his family,” said Seboka.
“They include payment of private trips to China and Singapore; private use of a witness protection house in Boksburg and conversion of this property for his personal use; the leasing out of Mdluli’s private townhouse at Gordon Villas in Gordons Bay as a safe house to the state and using the monthly rental to pay his bond; paying his financing costs owing on his private BMW through an intricate scheme to the detriment of the SAPS; coercing an SAPS supplier into giving Mdluli a special deal on the use and purchase price of a Honda Ballade; paying transfer costs to an attorney on the purchase of a house in Brackenfell, Cape Town, and having family members without adequate qualifications or experience appointed in crime intelligence, getting them on the payroll, paying their salaries, and providing them with motor vehicles and cellphones.”
Mdluli is currently on parole. He was sentenced to five years in prison in September 2020 after he was found guilty of kidnapping, assaulting and intimidating Oupa Ramogibe, his wife, and Mdluli’s former lover Tshidi Buthelezi in 1998.
Mdluli served a third of his sentence in prison and qualified for parole. The spokesperson for the Department of Correctional Services, Singabakho Nxumalo, said he qualified for parole because he “falls under the Phaahla Judgment”.
“He qualified to be considered for parole placement after serving 1/3 of the sentence as he falls under the Phaahla Judgment. His minimum detention period was on 28 May 2022,” said Nxumalo.
Also read: NPA welcomes restraint order to freeze Richard Mdluli’s assets
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