Ghost of ex-Crime Intelligence boss lingers at commission, while the actual Richard Mdluli pleads not to be jailed

While the Ghost of Richard Mdluli Past, as the once-powerful head of Crime Intelligence, lingered at the Zondo Commission on Tuesday 28 July, the Ghost of Mdluli Present – 64 and retired – asked Judge Ratha Mokgoatlheng not to sentence him to a jail term for fear he would contract the coronavirus.

Mdluli, who earned around R8.3-million while on suspension between 2011 and 2018, was convicted with co-accused and former colleague Mthembeni Mthunzi in July 2019. 

The men were charged with two counts of kidnapping, two counts of assault and two counts of assault with intent to do grievous bodily harm relating to the 1999 kidnapping and assault of Oupa Ramogibe. 

Mdluli’s lawyer, Ike Motloung, reportedly told the court that his client had been “declared unfit” and was hoping to submit a report by “an expert epidemiologist” with regard to Mdluli’s Covid-19 risk. The case was postponed to August.

Meanwhile, over at the Zondo Commission, the 2010 “Zimbabwe Rendition Matter” took centre stage for the second day as former police minister Nathi Nhleko continued to give evidence.

Nhleko has been implicated by several witnesses as having had a role in the capture and purging of the law enforcement cluster during his tenure as Jacob Zuma’s minister of police between 2014 and 2017.

The Zimbabwe Rendition, as indicated in court papers between Nhleko and former IPID head Robert McBride during the latter’s attempt to challenge his suspension, sits at the heart of a significant chapter of the State Capture project.

Because of it, several senior members in the law enforcement cluster, including Hawks head Anwa Dramat, Gauteng Hawks head Shadrack Sibiya, IPID executive director Robert McBride, IPID national head of investigations Matthews Sesoko and IPID investigator Innocent Kuba, were all purged – illegally – as the courts later found.

Dramat and Sibiya had conducted high-profile investigations, including into the upgrades to Zuma’s home at Nkandla and Mdluli’s role in the looting of the Crime Intelligence “slush fund”.

The Zimbabwe Rendition saga has sprawled and spread over the years and has been, and remains, the subject of several disparate and disputed investigations starting with Crime Intelligence, followed by the Police Civilian Secretariat, then IPID, the NPA, a special “reference group” set up by Nhleko, then IPID again, and finally a report by the private law firm Werksmans.

Along the way, what really happened at the handing over, between 2010 and 2011, of five Zimbabwean suspects linked to the murder of a Zimbabwean police inspector has come to be obscured by a thick political fog.

On Tuesday, Deputy Judge President Raymond Zondo tried to find his way through this fog as Nhleko spent hours setting out how he had relied on an original report by IPID and its recommendations to suspend Dramat. 

Dramat was replaced by Nhleko with Berning Ntlemeza, an appointment later overturned by the courts.

The “first report” had been initiated by Crime Intelligence and handed over to IPID investigator Innocent Kuba, who had then been “guided” by an NPA Special Projects Unit, headed by advocate Anthony Mosing. The unit reported to the then-NDPP head, Nomgcobo Jiba.

Nhleko claimed that “key facts and evidence” had been removed or excised from the IPID report which exonerated Dramat and Sibiya and this was his objection to it. 

Zondo several times on Tuesday said he had been keen to “get to the meat” of the nature of the alterations to the report and various other factual matters but with little success.