Probation officer recommends Mdluli’s co-accused ‘stay out of prison’ during sentencing

As the kidnapping and assault case of former crime intelligence boss Richard Mdluli draws to a close, Mdluli’s co-accused Mthembeni Mthunzi maintained his innocence, stressing he did not play a part in the crimes.

During the sentencing proceedings of Mdluli and Mthunzi in the Johannesburg High Court on Tuesday, probation officer Mulalo Nemutandani said that though the court had found them guilty, Mthunzi still maintained his innocence.

Although the court could send Mthunzi to prison, she recommended that Mthunzi be rehabilitated within the community.

Sending Mthunzi to prison would have a negative impact on his unemployed wife and five children, who solely relied on him, she said.

The matter was due to begin in the High Court in Johannesburg yesterday, but lawyers acting for Mdluli and Mthunzi asked for a postponement so they could read the judgment handed down last year.

Mdluli and Mthunzi – also a former cop – were found to have abducted Oupa Ramogibe and Mdluli’s former lover, Tshidi Buthelezi, in 1999. The pair were taken to a police station and beaten.

Judge Ratha Mokgoatlheng in July last year found Mdluli guilty of four counts of intimidation, two of kidnapping, two of common assault and two of assault with intent to do grievous bodily harm.

Mthunzi was found to have committed two counts of kidnapping, two of common assault and two of assault with intent to do grievous bodily harm.

In October, Constitutional Court Judge Leona Theron ruled that sections of the Intimidation Act limited freedom of expression and were unconstitutional.

Mokgoatlheng subsequently acquitted Mdluli of the intimidation charges.

The case has been in and out of court for the better part of a decade and speaking outside court, Ramogibe’s ageing mother, Sophia Ramogibe, said that she was looking forward to getting closure after all these years.

She said the protracted case had taken a toll on her and her family.

(Compiled by Gopolang Moloko, background reporting Bernadette Wicks)

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