Accusations are all blue lies: Mdluli

2012-09-20 19:10

Richard Mdluli (File, Sapa)

Johannesburg - Suspended crime intelligence boss Richard Mdluli finished giving evidence in the Boksburg Magistrate's Court on Thursday, in the inquest into the death of his love rival Oupa Ramogibe.

During his two days on the stand, Mdluli claimed there was a conspiracy to implicate him so as to prevent him from taking over as head of crime intelligence.

"All these things that come up now, those are the things we need to assess," Mdluli said under cross-examination by State advocate Kholeka Gcaleka.

Ramogibe died in February 1999, after marrying Mdluli's mistress.

Mdluli told Gcaleka the accusations against him surfaced after he was appointed.

She asked him why documents and police dockets were found in a safe at the Vosloorus police station.

He said that was impossible, because before he handed over the keys to the safe, he and another officer had inspected it to ensure it was empty.

Blue lies

"Those were blue lies," he said. "That is part of those manufactured stories."

He told the court he was not an initial suspect in the murder and that if he was he should have been questioned 13 years ago, when Ramogibe was killed.

"The prosecutors and investigators didn't know their jobs, because I was never questioned."

Mdluli described himself as a man of the community, who was intellectual and humble.

He was accused of the murder with Samuel Dlomo, Colonel Nkosana Sebastian Ximba, and Lieutenant Colonel Mtunzi-Omhle Mthembeni Mtunzi, but the charge was provisionally withdrawn in February pending the outcome of the inquest.

Also withdrawn were charges of intimidation, kidnapping, assault with intent to do grievous bodily harm, attempted murder, and conspiracy to commit murder.

Taint his image

Mdluli told the court that people, including police officers, had made false statements in order to taint his image as a policeman.

"Many people were promised many things to write statements tainting me... Some people were even beaten."

He reiterated his evidence on Wednesday in denying accusations that Ximba and Mtunzi were promoted for their part in Ramogibe's death.

Mdluli also denied being friends with them and said: "I didn't walk around with juniors back at my time in Vosloorus."

Asked why he went to the Ramogibe family home after finding out that Ramogibe was seeing his mistress Tsidi Buthelezi, Mdluli said he had been doing the culturally correct thing and not trying to threaten the family.

"I went there to inform them [of the relationship]. I was cultural. As a Swazi man you speak to the family when something is wrong."

Confident

Ramogibe was shot dead while showing Dlomo a place where he had previously been shot at.

Mdluli maintained that he was not aware of the visit to the scene, or that someone had been shot.

"I only heard Dlomo was robbed," he said. "Police were robbed left and right in Vosloorus at that time... The area was still volatile."

Mdluli denied a suggestion by Gcaleka that he had closed the attempted murder docket opened by Ramogibe because he knew who was involved in the shooting.

"You can't instruct an officer to close a docket... It's the officer's prerogative to close a docket," he said.

Mdluli said that even if a docket was closed, it could be reopened at any time.

He was wearing a black and charcoal striped suit and confidently answered the questions.

He told the court it was not necessary for him to take action to clear his name regarding newspaper articles in which allegations against him were made.

The inquest heard that Mdluli was under the impression that Ximba got his nickname "Killer" because he was a good soccer player.

The inquest continues with the testimony of General Godfrey Lebeya, who was instructed to investigate all matters related to crime intelligence in 2010.

- SAPA