An explosive court document in a Freedom Under Law (FUL) interdict application seems to indicate that officers who were investigating controversial top cop Richard Mdluli had been threatened.
The report by Hawks detective Colonel Kobus Roelofse, submitted in the Johannesburg High Court on Tuesday, also lists instances of interference into the investigation against him.
The report, which Roelofse says can be converted into an affidavit, had been addressed to the commander of the Anti-Corruption Task Team in March.
The threat to the policemen was discussed during a briefing session attended by Gauteng commissioner Lieutenant-General Mzwandile Petros, Major-General Z Matakata, Major-General Shadrack Sibiya, Lieutenant-Colonel Peter Janse Viljoen and Roelofse on March 21 last year, according to the report.
The investigation team, under Sibiya’s command, were threatened and were unable to continue with the investigation.
“Therefore an independent investigative team was needed to proceed with the investigation,” Roelofse’s report reads.
Cecil Burgess, the chairman of Parliament’s joint standing committee on intelligence and a senior ANC MP, is named in the explosive report.
Meanwhile, sheriff of the court Happy Thantsha has indicated that Mdluli had tried to evade the sheriff, who has tried twice to serve papers on him.
The document from the sheriff that forms part of the documents filed in court on Tuesday reads: “This is to certify that two attempts were made at Dawn Park in Boksburg (Mdluli’s address) to serve notice of motion.”
On Tuesday, FUL launched an urgent application in the Johannesburg High Court, asking that Mdluli be stripped of his police responsibilities as he faces crimes more serious than those that a higher-ranking officer, General Bheki Cele, is accused of.
The FUL wants the court to prevent Mdluli from acting as a police officer, pending a judicial review of his reappointment.
Mdluli faced a range of allegations including murder, kidnapping, corruption and nepotism, which were provisionally withdrawn last year. FUL wants a review of the withdrawals.
The Star