Former Eskom forensic auditor Dorothy Mmushi has fingered the suspected hitman in the assassination of Lt Col Piet Pretorius earlier this year as the man who told her that he had been offered R400 000 to kill her.
Mmushi told Sunday World that she was disappointed and saddened that a family had to lose their loved one because of police inaction.
“I am highly disappointed at the lack of effort shown by the SAPS in my matter. SAPS failed to arrest the man and charge him with extortion and attempted murder, despite having evidence that links him to my attempted assassination,” Mmushi told Sunday World.
Fugitive Gift Mdluli, dubbed “Prince Mdluli”, was arrested on Saturday, March 8, at a clothing shop in Komatipoort, ending a manhunt that began in January after he allegedly gunned down Pretorius, the 59-year-old commander of the Ermelo Vehicle Crime Investigation Unit, in an execution-style murder.
The 30-year-old Mdluli had been on the run since January 16.
Sunday World has been reliably informed that at the time of Pretorius’ brutal murder, Mdluli had recently been freed on bail for his alleged role in a deadly November 2023 cash-in-transit robbery along the R37 in Mecklenburg. He and his alleged accomplices were later cornered by police following a high-speed car chase.
During that heist, a security guard was fatally wounded when the robbers bombed the cash van he was in. They then made off with an undisclosed amount of cash.
During the arrest, police recovered AK-47 rifles and spent cartridges, expensive clothing worth around R50 000 and cash.
A few months before this brazen heist, Mmushi told police that Mdluli was the man who had informed her that her then boss had paid him R50 000 to kill her, with a promise that a balance of R350 000 would be paid once the job was done.
She told Sunday World that she handed police and Hawks “swathes of evidence, including telephone recordings and photographs” sent to her by the alleged hitman.
Mmushi would again identify Mdluli after he was arrested during the Limpopo cash-in-transit robbery, yet he was still not arrested.
“Police squandered many opportunities to take the cold-blooded killer off the streets, with deadly consequences. This failure to keep the suspect behind bars has resulted in the loss of life, which could have been avoided,” she said.
“Two years later, and the SAPS has failed to apprehend the individuals who ordered the hit on me.
“Justice has failed me and those who are now deceased at the hands of this perpetrator.”
Mmushi said she has yet to be contacted by the police for an update, and she continues to live in fear for her life, knowing that the police has not made a move in pursuing an investigation into the assassination claims that she made against her boss.
“I wonder whether things would have turned out differently had he succeeded in assassinating me. We live in a society that advocates for justice when a person is deceased but fails to fight for justice for a survivor,” said Mmushi.
This statement from Mmushi cuts to the heart of the matter.
She believes the criminal justice system’s failure to protect her when she was a potential victim has now resulted in actual victims, including Pretorius, who died serving the same organisation that failed to protect him by keeping known killers on the streets.
The Mdluli case represents more than just a series of police failures; it’s a cautionary tale about the cascading effects of inaction of law enforcement.
When police fail to act on credible intelligence, criminals don’t simply disappear. They escalate, they network, they kill.
When asked for comment, Hawks spokesperson Brigadier Thandi Mbambo said: “We can confirm that this matter is still under investigation, and details thereof cannot be publicised in the public domain.”
