Mdluli's lawyer: Witness lying to court
2012-09-05 21:56
-
Johannesburg
Johannesburg: The elusive metropolis is a pioneering effort to insert South Africa's largest city...
Now R236.00
buy now
Johannesburg - Sidelined crime intelligence boss Richard Mdluli's lawyer accused a witness of lying on Wednesday in an inquest into the death of his love rival.
Ike Motloung, for Mdluli, was cross-examining Mdluli's love rival Oupa Ramogibe's sister Justina in the Boksburg Magistrate's Court.
"Justina, what you are doing is a transparent attempt to lie to the court and we can see through it," Motloung said.
He was questioning her about her rape and abduction after Oupa's death, and questioned various statements made.
On Tuesday, Justina told the inquest she was certain that police officers raped her.
She said: "I knew it was the police because they were travelling in a police vehicle."
Wednesday saw Motloung continuing with his questions on why Justina's statements were inconsistent. In some of them she did not mention the police's involvement.
Justina replied that not all the statements were hers, and her signature on some had been forged.
"In all the statements made, fraudulent or not, why do you not mention that the police raped you, or that it was in a police vehicle?" Motloung asked.
Justina said she did not know, but also said she did not like discussing the matter.
The inquest would determine if criminal charges against Mdluli and his accomplices Samuel Dlomo, Colonel Nkosana Sebastian Ximba, and Lieutenant Colonel Mtunzi-Omhle Mthembeni Mtunzi, should be reinstated.
The charges were provisionally withdrawn in February, pending the outcome of the inquest.
The initial charges against them were intimidation, kidnapping, assault with intent to do grievous bodily harm, murder, attempted murder, and conspiracy to commit murder.
Earlier, Paul Leisher, for Ximba, accused Justina and the Ramogibe family of making up a version implicating the four police officers.
"You and your family put all the information in a melting pot and decided it was superintendent Mdluli [who killed your brother]," Leisher said.
"A version based on suspicion has been made to implicate all four police officers."
Justina said she knew Mdluli was involved in her brother's shooting because he had threatened Oupa.
Questioning Justina about her version of the rape and what her mother Sophia told the inquest earlier, Motloung wanted to know who was being untruthful.
"Let's sharpen this. Who is telling the truth between you and your mom?" he asked.
Justina said she was telling the truth and told him he must remember her mother was getting old.
However, Motloung said she could not use that as an excuse because her mother was not that old.
Motloung continued to question her on the details of the rape.
At the time of the crime, in 1999, Mdluli was branch commander of the Vosloorus police station.
Before postponing the case, Magistrate Jurg Viviers urged the State to do what was necessary to ensure witnesses were present.
"We are battling to get witnesses... We can't sit back and invite people to come, and wait for them to get back to us."
Viviers said the inquest was costing a lot of people a lot of money.
It continues on Thursday.
- SAPA
