Johannesburg - Johannes Manyathela had an axe to grind. After witnessing his then colleague at the Vosloorus police station, suspended crime intelligence boss Richard Mdluli, rise to senior positions in the police force, Manyathela developed a grudge, Mduli’s lawyer, Ike Motloung, argued at the Boksburg Magistrate’s Court on Monday.
“Mdluli didn’t help you with a promotion and he was going up and up and you had a grudge,” Motloung said accusingly, staring straight at Manyathela.
It was Manyathela’s second day under cross-examination at the inquest into Oupa Ramogibe’s death in February 1999.
Motloung made this argument as he tried to discredit Manyathela as a witness to the events after Ramogibe’s murder.
Ramogibe had been in a relationship with Mdluli’s former lover, Tshidi Buthelezi.
The court heard two weeks ago from Ramogibe’s family that Mdluli had made threats on his life, and that he had gone as far as to say that if they did not stop him from continuing the affair, they would “mourn him”.
Manyathela testified on Monday that a day after Ramogibe’s murder, Ramogibe’s family approached him at the station to lay a complaint that Mdluli had been making threats on his life. Manyathela did not take down a formal statement of this complaint, but directed the family to the then area commissioner.
“When the Ramogibe family spoke to you, it seemed you believed everything… You believed he [Mdluli] was a criminal,” Motloung said. He answered: “I believed what they were saying was the truth.”
At that time, Manyathela was a station commander at the Vosloorus police station and Mdluli a superintendent.
Motloung referred to an article in the Sowetan newspaper on July 10, 2009 headlined “Love twist haunts top cop”. The article ran after Mdluli had been appointed as head of crime intelligence.
Motloung questioned Manyathela on why he hadn’t gone to his seniors or investigators to tell them what he knew about events leading to Ramogibe’s murder after he had seen the article.
“There was no assistance I could have brought because we are talking about a newspaper article,” he explained.
But it was after watching a news broadcast on TV last year, stating that police were investigating the matter, that Manyathela decided to make a statement about what Ramogibe’s family had told him.
Criminal charges against Mdluli and his alleged accomplices Samuel Dlomo, Sebastian Ximba, and Mtunzi-Omhle Mtunzi, were provisionally withdrawn in February, pending the outcome of the inquest. The charges were intimidation, kidnapping, assault with intent to do grievous bodily harm, murder, attempted murder and conspiracy to commit murder.
Manyathela denied ever bearing a grudge towards Mdluli. But Motloung pulled no punches, saying that when Manyathela found out that the police were looking for Mdluli, he thought it was his opportunity to “get even”.
Manyathela’s failure to make a statement after the family came to him with the complaint should’ve resulted in his being charged with negligence and defeating the ends of justice, Motloung added. The inquest continues.
The Star