Corruption case against former crime intelligence boss Richard Mdluli postponed

The corruption case against former crime intelligence boss Richard Mdluli and two others has been postponed until February 6 next year for the purposes of a pretrial meeting.

When the matter was postponed last month until Tuesday, it was to allow Mdluli an opportunity to provide the Pretoria high court with an update on the progress of a review application against his former employer, the police. The police had refused to fund him in the corruption case.

However, it is not clear what the outcome of the review application was after the case was postponed on Tuesday because of a power outage.

Mdluli, former crime intelligence CFO Solly Lazarus and former head of supply chain management Heine Barnard face charges of corruption, fraud and theft allegedly committed between 2008 and 2012 when they were at the helm of the department.

The charges relate to allegations of gross abuse of the police intelligence slush fund, from which Mdluli and his family are said to have benefited. 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 town house at Gordon Villas in Gordons Bay as a safe house to the state; and
• using the monthly rental to pay his bond.

Other allegations are that Mdluli’s family members, without adequate qualifications or experience, were appointed in crime intelligence and provided with motor vehicles and cellphones.

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