SAPS colonel denies involvement in plot to oust former NDPP Mxolisi Nxasana

29 July 2021 - 15:03 By mawande amashabalala
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Former national director of public prosecutions Mxolisi Nxasana. File photo.
Former national director of public prosecutions Mxolisi Nxasana. File photo.
Image: Sunday Times/Thapelo Morebudi

Former SAPS colonel Welcome Mhlongo has denied that he was in cahoots with advocate Nomgcobo Jiba to oust former national director of public prosecutions (NDPP) Mxolisi Nxasana.

This after the Hawks' Terence Joubert and Mhlongo's cousin, Queen Mhlongo, alleged that he was involved in a plot to get Nxasana removed barely a month after he resumed as NDPP in October 2013. 

According to Joubert, Welcome Mhlongo had revealed his involvement in the plot to Queen who on one occasion visited his office.

That conversation, according to Joubert, had been secretly recorded by him. However, the recording has never seen the light of day at the Zondo commission.

Using this as his defence, Mhlongo, who appeared at a virtual sitting of the Zondo inquiry into state capture on Thursday, said Joubert and Queen were the ones plotting to wrongfully implicate him.

He admitted to having had a conversation with Queen in which Nxasana was the subject. But this conversation was a positive one which Queen and Joubert decided to manipulate and present as a negative one showing he had plotted Nxasana's downfall.

“Inasmuch as we did have a conversation with Miss Mhlongo, it is now being presented in ways that back up Mr Joubert's version,” said Mhlongo.

“That conversation was never in bad taste, it was in good terms because we were happy our cousin had been appointed as NDPP.

“Queen even said we must support and assist Mr Nxasana. Now she and Joubert say they recorded me during that conversation, but where is the recording?

“I had no reason to object to Mr Nxasana’s appointment and even if I did, I had no power nor standing to determine his destiny.” 

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