Saps slush fund abuse case against Mdluli and co-accused delayed once again  

The fraud and corruption case involving former crime intelligence boss, Richard Mdluli, has been delayed once again due to his bid to force the South African Police Service (Saps) to pay for his legal fees.

Mdluli and his two co-accused – former Saps supply chain manager Heine Barnard and former chief financial officer of the State Security Agency Solomon Lazarus – face charges of corruption, fraud and theft in connection with allegations of gross abuse of the police’s intelligence slush fund.

The intelligence slush fund consists of funds allocated to Crime Intelligence by Treasury for the specific purpose of preventing crime and gathering intelligence to combat crime.

Intelligence slush fund

The matter pertains to charges of gross abuse of the police crime intelligence slush fund, which allegedly benefited Mdluli and his family.

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.

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The other allegations, among others, include paying his financing costs owing on his private BMW through an intricate scheme to the detriment of the Saps, coercing a Saps supplier into giving Mdluli a special deal on the use and purchase price of a Honda Ballade.

The offences are alleged to have been committed between 2008 and 2012.

Postponement

On Tuesday, the matter against the trio was supposed to resume in the Pretoria High Court, but the case was once again postponed to allow Mdluli to provide an update to the court on the progress of the review application by Saps to fund his legal fees.

The postponement was also to provide Mdluli an opportunity to respond to the pre-trial agenda.

The matter was deferred to 11 October 2022.

In August, the high court granted the NPA’s Asset Forfeiture Unit a restraint order of over R13 million against Mdluli and his co-accused.

Meanwhile, in July Mdluli was released on parole after serving a five-year sentence for the kidnapping and assault of his former lover Tshidi Buthelezi, her husband Oupa Ramogibe, and a friend in 1998.

Mdluli was sentenced on 29 September 2020.

Compiled by Thapelo Lekabe

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