Mdluli: More dirt

As controversy clouds the withdrawal of murder and fraud charges against embattled police spy boss Richard Mdluli, more details of his alleged criminal behaviour emerged at an inquest yesterday.

Just two weeks after Mdluli was controversially reinstated in the police after being suspended from duty for more than a year, the Boksburg Magistrate's Court was told that he had assaulted a former girlfriend, kidnapped and assaulted two of her friends and her lover, and repeatedly intimidated several members of her family.

The allegations form part of a 67-page submission that was yesterday read out by investigating officer Colonel Kobus Roelofse as part of the inquest into the murder of Oupa Ramogibe 13 years ago. Ramogibe was married to Mdluli's former lover, Tshidi Buthelezi.

Mdluli has been saved from a court hearing for now because of the withdrawal last month of a string of charges after he made representations to the National Prosecuting Authority last year. He claimed that his prosecution was politically motivated.

The outcome of the inquest will determine if he will be recharged.

The withdrawal of the charges in March has sparked outrage and allegations of interference by President Jacob Zuma and Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa.

But yesterday Roelofse said that he and a team of seasoned police officers, brought in from Cape Town, had obtained 127 affidavits from witnesses and collected 138 exhibits in preparation for the murder trial of Mdluli and three others.

Mdluli and Colonel Nkosana Ximba, court orderly Warrant Officer Samuel Dhlomo, and Colonel Mtunzi-Omhle Mtunzi were charged with murder, kidnapping and defeating the ends of justice.

Roelofse - who was roped in by the head of the Hawks in Gauteng in March last year after several investigators were threatened - detailed a meticulous investigation with watertight statements from witnesses, including seven witnesses now under cover in the witness protection programme.

He told of months of work culminating in the reconstruction of dockets that had "gone missing", only to be ordered in February to stop all investigations.

Roelofse told of his team's difficulties in collecting police records - none of the crime registers covered the relevant periods, and some of the record books, case registers and case dockets could be accounted for.

But statements by witnesses allege that Mdluli and the others launched a systematic attack on Ramogibe.

Mdluli, while married to Vusiwane, is alleged to have had an affair with Buthelezi from 1986 and to have played a key role in the murder of Ramogibe in February 1999.

Statements that will be admitted as evidence at the inquest will show that Buthelezi was a schoolgirl when Mdluli started an affair with her. Mdluli claimed that he had paid for her education, that he paid R12000 in lobola to her parents, and that he and Buthelezi were married traditionally.

In September 1997, Buthelezi preferred an assault charge against Mdluli but withdrew it after Mdluli told the investigating officer that his wife wanted the case withdrawn.

Buthelezi met Ramogibe while still in a relationship with Mdluli, culminating in their marriage at the Boksburg Magistrate's Court in July 1998.

The two, said Roelofse, went into hiding in Orange Farm, south of Johannesburg, after repeated threats by Mdluli.

This included Mdluli, Ximba, Mtunzi and Dhlomo visiting their respective homes and threatening their families in an attempt to pressurise the two into ending their relationship.

In trying to establish their whereabouts, Mdluli allegedly kidnapped Alice Manana and Sarah Ramogale from their homes between August and October 1998.

Manana alleged that Mdluli and his colleagues intimidated and assaulted them, including at the Vosloorus police station.

Manana opened a case of kidnapping and assault against Mdluli but the docket "disappeared" and no action was taken.

A first attempt on Ramogibe's life was made in December 1998. He reported the attempt and Dhlomo was assigned to investigate it.

Ramogibe was gunned down in February 1999 while pointing out the scene of the first incident.

Dhlomo claimed that two unknown people approached him and ordered him to hand over his service pistol. Shots were then fired.

Roelofse said robbery should be ruled out as the motive for the killing because photos taken at the crime scene show Ramogibe still wearing his gold chain.

The trial was yesterday postponed to April 30.

Earlier, Mdluli's lawyer asked for a postponement because his client had asked the state for financial assistance.

Magistrate Jurg Viviers said that he had to consider several aspects in deciding on the postponement, including public confidence in the judicial process, the time that had elapsed since the crime was committed, the fact that there are seven witnesses in the protection programme, and the family of the deceased.