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Does the name Richard Mdluli ring a bell? You won’t be judged if you only have a vague memory of the man – it has been a long time.

Back in the days when Microsoft was still running with Windows 8.1, and Barrack Obama was only starting his second term in the White House, Richard Mdluli was busted for dipping his greedy fingers into the police’s secret slush fund while at the helm of the police crime intelligence services.

Mdluli and his two co-accused, former SAPS supply chain manager Heine Barnard and chief financial officer Solomon Lazarus, were charged with corruption, fraud and theft.

The allegations included the payment of private trips to China and Singapore, the private use of witness protection houses, and the leasing of Mdluli’s private residence to the state in order to pay his bond.

Among other allegations, it was also claimed that during one of Mdluli’s trips to Singapore in 2009, he allegedly used some of the funds for personal expenses, buying electronic equipment, clothing, jewellery, and perfume (this was the Zuma years after all).

If it rings a bell, you will be overjoyed to know that after 13 years, the three slush fund accused are finally heading to trial.

The unusual delay was caused by Mdluli’s insistence that SAPS foot the bill for his trial, as by his reckoning, the alleged misdeeds took place while he was employed by them. This would of course be similar to Checkers funding your legal defence after you stole from them, so SAPS said hell no, and insisted that his ‘crimes’ had nothing to do with them. Mdluli baulked and took SAPS’s decision on review.

13 years later, the application remains somewhere in the dark void of political accountability (next to the folder with details about the funds from the 10 million barrels of oil we disposed of).

The delay has irked Judge Papi Masopa, who declared the trial must continue regardless of whether the SAPS review has been completed, and a date was set for October 7, 2024, in the North Gauteng High Court.

Mdluli and his co-defendant Mthembeni Mthunzi have since been found guilty of four counts of intimidation, two counts of kidnapping, two counts of common assault and two counts of assault, and slapped with 5-year prison sentences in 2019. He is currently on parole after being released in 2022.

Hopefully, the new trial will force the rusted wheels of justice to turn over before Microsoft releases Windows 32 and Trump is crowned US president for the fourth time.

[source:iol]