Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa said on Wednesday night he had not received a letter from crime intelligence boss Richard Mdluli alleging that police generals were ganging up against him.
The letter, written by Mdluli in November, is addressed to President Jacob Zuma, Mthethwa and acting national police commissioner Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi.
In it Mdluli says he received three affidavits “regarding a conspiracy against me” and met the unnamed source in person. He says he was told his arrests were “not about cases themselves, it is to keep me away from work… eventually dismiss me through disciplinary process” and replace him with former crime intelligence boss Ray Lalla.
“It is alleged I support the minister of police and the president… In the event that I come back to work I will assist the president to succeed next year,” Mdluli wrote, in an apparent reference to the ANC’s leadership elections at the end of the year.
He names suspended top cop, Bheki Cele, Hawks boss Anwa Dramat, Gauteng police chief Mzwandile Petros and Godfrey Lebeya, appointed by Cele, as allegedly “working against me”.
“The four… also had a meeting where they planned that I must be fired from the police before General Cele is suspended,” the letter says.
“I am working for my family and I want to return to work. This matter is requested to be investigated and suspend all disciplinary actions against me until my criminal cases had been finalized (sic).”
Mdluli said he’d been told he had been arrested because of the secret Ground Coverage Report “they alleges (sic) that I gave it to the president and it was implicating senior officers”.
The report alleged Cele had ditched his loyalty to Zuma and was plotting – with top politicians – to have Zuma ousted as party leader. - Political Bureau