Richard Mdluli’s corruption case into the abuse of the police secret slush fund has been postponed to May 11.
Mdluli, the former SAPS crime intelligence head, and his two co-accused, former SAPS supply chain manager Heine Barnard and chief financial officer Solomon Lazarus, appeared at the Pretoria High Court on Wednesday.
The trio faces charges of corruption, fraud, and theft committed between 2008 and 2012 when they were at the helm of the police crime intelligence service.
Heine faces an additional charge of defeating the ends of justice.
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.
Before the trial in 2021, Mdluli and his co-accused submitted an application saying the SAPS is liable for their legal costs because they were employees of the SAPS at the time.
Their application was, however, unsuccessful after the SAPS said it would not fork out a cent toward their legal fees.
Meanwhile, the high court is under the impression that Mdluli and his co-accused are deliberately delaying the trial.
Investigating directorate spokesperson Sindisiwe Seboka said in a statement on Thursday: “The postponement is due to Mdluli not having filed his responses to the section 342A application brought by the state against him on grounds of unreasonable delay.
“An unreasonable delay application was brought about by Mdluli planning to bring a review application to his former employer [SAPS] after he was denied legal funding. All the accused in the case were notified by SAPS that the agency would not fund their legal fees.”
Mdluli is currently serving a five-year prison sentence after he was found guilty of kidnapping and assaulting Oupa Ramogibe in 1999.
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