Fraud charges against Richard Mdluli to be reinstated, NPA confirms

National Director of Public Prosecutions Shamila Batohi confirmed to national broadcaster SABC that former crime intelligence boss Richard Mdluli will be charged with fraud, with the declassification of documents after a decade allowing the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) to proceed with the case.

The charges reportedly relate to an alleged abuse of the crime intelligence secret fund, with charges withdrawn in 2015 by former special director of public prosecutions Lawrence Mrwebi to be re-enrolled.

According to Business Day, Mdluli is not the only senior official who will face charges due to the declassification of documents.

Batohi said at a round-table discussion with members of the media that police commissioner Khehla Sitole had written to her last week indicating that he had agreed to declassify “a whole range of documents that we need”.

She also said that the documents relate not just to the Mdluli case but a range of others, but investigating director Hermione Cronje said that the Mdluli case was an example of one where the former crime intelligence boss was only let off the hook due to the documents being classified.

“I do think people should know you are not going to be able to hide behind something like declassification to get away with what you have been up to, and there’s a lot of that going on,” Cronje said.

The Zondo commission of inquiry into state capture has resulted in several allegations made against Mdluli.

This included that the secret service account (SSA) was allegedly used to furnish his properties, as well as those of former lieutenant general Ray Lalla, and that these properties were leased to crime intelligence.

READ MORE: Zondo hears of Mdluli family nepotism within crime intelligence

Whistleblower Colonel Dhanajaya Naidoo told the chairperson of the commission, Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo, that the properties were leased to crime intelligence through a company owned by a friend of the head of the SSA former police major general Solomon Lazarus.

Naidoo said he was of the view that due to a lack of transparency in the leasing of these properties by crime intelligence and the fact that Mdluli and Lalla were paid by Lazarus in cash, were indications of wrongdoing.

Naidoo also blew the whistle on luxury vehicles allegedly purchased by Mdludli using SSA funds, including two Mercedes Benzes and a five-series BMW.

And according to Naidoo, R86,000 from the SSA was spent on purchasing flight tickets for Mdluli and his wife, Vusiwani Lillian Mdluli.

In July, the High Court in Johannesburg found Mdluli and his co-accused, Mthembeni Mthunzi, guilty of assault, intimidation, and kidnapping.

The judgment related to a 1999 kidnapping case, with the pair charged with the kidnapping of Oupa Ramogibe in 1999.

Mdluli was, however, acquitted on four of the intimidation charges earlier in November.

(Compiled by Daniel Friedman. Additional reporting, Makhosandile Zulu)

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