Top cop?s plot to kill lover?s husband

South Africa’s police crime intelligence boss allegedly refused to be spurned by his ex-lover. So he plotted his revenge...

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South Africa’s police crime intelligence boss allegedly refused to be spurned by his ex-lover.

So he plotted his revenge and expertly lured her husband to a spot in Vosloorus.

There he shot him dead, pumping bullets into his head, heart and lungs. And then he made sure the murder could never be investigated.

These are the details of the alleged decade-old love triangle contained in the State’s indictment against suspended police lieutenant-general Richard Mdluli, who appeared in the Boksburg Magistrate’s Court under heavy police guard yesterday, along with two other policemen and a court orderly.

The State argues that Mdluli, who commanded the Vosloorus Police Station’s detective branch between 1997 and 1999, got his junior officers to help him hunt down - and kill - his girlfriend’s new husband, Oupa Ramogibe.

Mdluli and his co-accused - court orderly Samuel Dlomo, 49, Colonel Nkosana Sebastian Ximba, 38, and Lieutenant-Colonel Mtunzi-Omhle Mthembeni Mtunzi, 52 - were charged with intimidation, three counts of kidnapping, two counts of assault with intent to do grievous bodily harm, murder, attempted murder, and conspiracy to commit murder.

Mdluli faces an additional charge of defeating or obstructing the course of justice.

They all worked at the Vosloorus Police Station detective branch between 1997 and 1999 under Mdluli.

The state claims Mdluli and Tshidi Buthelezi were teenage sweethearts.

They moved in together in Dawn Park in Boksburg and later had a baby.

But the relationship fizzled out and Buthelezi later met Ramogibe.

The pair married in July, 1998.

An enraged Mdluli found out about the wedding and obtained a copy of the couple’s marriage certificate.

According to the indictment, Ramogibe was also involved in another relationship with a Lerato Seballo.

“Mdluli visited the homes of Lerato Seballo, Maletsatsi Sophia Ramogibe and Jostinah Matohlang Ramogibe in an attempt to convince them by means of intimidation to put pressure on Tshidi Buthelezi and the deceased (Oupa Ramogibe) to end their relationship.

“Tshidi Buthelezi and the deceased went into hiding after they got married and it came to their knowledge that Mdluli was looking for them.

At one stage, they went to hide in Orange Farm,” the indictment states.

When he could not find them, Mdluli went to Buthelezi’s friend, Alice Manana, to find out where the couple were hiding.

The state claims he beat her up to get her to spill the beans.

Then he tried again, abducting her from her house in Windmill Park. He and his team took her to the station. They threatened to kill her.

Getting the information he wanted, Mdluli took Manana to Orange Farm.

“He found the couple Tshidi Buthelezi and Oupa Ramogibe.

“(Mdluli) then also abducted Buthelezi and her husband, Ramogibe and took them to the Vosloorus Police Station,” says the team.

Arriving there, he and his team laid into all three, kicking and punching them.

Mdluli had tried to kill Manana at her home on October 17, 1998. The state claims Manana was hospitalised.

On December 23, 1998, there was an attempt on Ramogibe’s life at the corner of Khaka and Khokonoko Streets in Windmill Park, while Ramogibe was driving Ximba’s Volkswagen Golf. It’s unclear why he was in the car of one of the men accused of killing him.

The next day, Ramogibe and Ximba went to the police station to open a docket of attempted murder.

Dlomo was assigned to the investigation, but the docket was closed in February the next year, when Dlomo swore that he couldn’t find Ramogibe to take his statement.

A week later he went to Maletsatsi Ramogibe - the deceased’s relative - asking her to tell him to go to the police station in connection with his case. Ramogibe received the message and went the same day - February 17, 1999.

He met Dlomo, who led him into an ambush.

A forensic report indicated that he was shot multiple times in the brain, lung and heart.

Neither Mdluli nor his detectives investigated Ramogibe’s murder after Ramogibe’s family lodged a formal complaint. Charges were only brought in March this year - 12 years later.

He was duly arrested.

During his bail application in April, Mdluli claimed the charges against him had been trumped up by former President Thabo Mbeki’s supporters to have him neutralised in the run-up to next year’s ANC elective conference in Mangaung.

Defence lawyers asked why charges had only been brought 12 years after the crime, and claimed the State had neither forensic nor ballistic evidence and had based its case on suspicion.

The State argued that it couldn’t bring charges earlier as Mdluli had used his considerable influence as commanding officer of the unit investigating the matter to make it disappear.

Dockets relating to the case were found in his safe but Mdluli denied knowledge of them.

The trial has been set down for a month in the High Court in Johannesburg from April 10 next year. Mdluli is out on bail of R20 000.

Last week Mdluli found himself in the Pretoria Commercial Crimes Court on an unrelated charge of fraud.

The state will argue he appropriated witness protection funds and falsified police claims to pay his girlfriends’ and their relatives’ salaries, buying them cars and putting them in safe houses after registering them as covert intelligence operatives.

In one case, investigators found that a Cape Town woman, whom they reportedly confirmed as his girlfriend, was registered as an operative and paid at least R18 000 a month.

The girlfriend’s cousin and brother were also “employed” by Crime Intelligence and were paid R8 000 a month.

The Saturday Star understands that investigators have found a similar situation in Roodepoort on the West Rand, where a woman with alleged links to Mdluli lives in a house meant for people under the witness protection programme.

Sources said Mdluli had the power to instruct subordinates to purchase moveable and immovable property to meet operational requirements.

He is due back in court on December 14. - Saturday Star

Source: http://www.iol.co.za/top-cop-s-plot-to-kill-lover-s-husband-1.1148555

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