Richard Mdluli finally appears after missing four previous court dates

After failing to show up in court on four previous occasions, former crime intelligence boss Richard Mdluli finally made an appearance at the high court in Pretoria on Friday to face charges of fraud, corruption and theft related to the police’s secret slush fund.

Earlier this month, Judge Bert Bam issued a warrant of arrest for Mdluli after he failed to appear in court for a third time.

Dressed in a navy blue suit, a white shirt and a patterned blue tie, a shackled Mdluli was escorted by correctional service officials to court as he is serving a five-year sentence for kidnapping, assault and intimidation in an unrelated matter.

In a statement, the Independent Directorate’s Sindisiwe Twala said Mdluli’s constant failure to show up had resulted in the matter of his co-accused — Heine Barnard and Solomon Lazarus — being postponed to June 18 for a pretrial conference.

But Mdluli will appear again before then, on April 6, when arguments in his application to fund his case will be heard. On the same day, the ID’s application to bar Mdluli from creating any additional delays will be heard — an attempt to ensure that he can join his co-accused on trial later this year.

“All three accused face charges related to the abuse of the police secret slush fund. The accusations include payment of private trips to China and Singapore, private use of witness protection houses, conversion of this property for personal use and the leasing out of his private residence to the state in order to pay Mdluli’s bond, among others,” Twala said in a statement.

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