Pretoria – The Pretoria Commercial Crimes Court in Pretoria on Monday struck fraud and corruption charges against former crime intelligence boss Richard Mdluli off the roll, but this could prove a temporary reprieve as the police investigation against him would continue.
National Prosecuting Authority spokesman Luvuyo Mfaku said the court scrapped the case because the police investigation had not been completed, but noted that it was likely to be reinstated once this had been done.
“The matter was struck off due to outstanding investigations but even the magistrate said that it would be reinstated once the investigation had been completed,” Mfaku said.
The case against Mdluli has been an on-again, off-again matter for years. He has faced fraud charges relating to the alleged abuse of the police crime intelligence’s slush fund. It was alleged that along with CID finance chief Solly Lazarus, Mdluli had sanctioned the abuse of millions of rands from the account for private ends.
In 2012, he was reinstated as the head of the police’s Crime Intelligence Division (CID) after the NPA dropped the charges amid reports that the prosecuting authority and the office of the inspector general of intelligence had bowed to political pressure to let him off the hook.
Around that time, then acting national police commissioner Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi told a parliamentary portfolio committee that he had been under duress not to pursue certain politically sensitive cases and had been told to “release some case dockets to the inspector-general for intelligence”, in what appeared to be a reference to the charges against General Mdluli.
In March this year, while Mxolisi Nxasana was still in the post of national director of public prosecutions which he has since left, the NPA reinstated the charges.
ANA