Richard Mdluli to blame for trial delays, State says

IT IS MORE than a decade since former crime intelligence boss Richard Mdluli was arrested on charges of fraud, corruption and theft relating to the SAPS secret slush fund.

Yet the trial is yet set to get under way, and Mdluli is, according to the State, mostly to blame for the delay.

The investigative directorate said in an affidavit before the Gauteng High Court, Pretoria, that his constant failure to appear in court and his numerous interlocutory applications were resulting in the matter dragging.

It was also unfair towards the rights of his co-accused, Heine Barnard and Solomon Lazarus, who had appeared in court numerous times, only to have the matter postponed time and again.

The trio yet again appeared in court yesterday, where Judge Papi Mosopa was due to hear two applications – one by the State and the other by Mdluli’s co-accused – for the judge to put his foot down for further delays and order that the trial proceed as soon as possible.

It is stated in an affidavit by Mark McLean of the Priority Crime Investigation unit of the SAPS that this matter had been dragging on for 11 years, and has a long litigation history. One of the consequences is that one of the State witnesses and his family have had to remain under the witness protection programme since 2011.

To date, he has not taken the stand and the accused have not even pleaded to the array of charges against them.

McLean said the previous delays in the matter could be attributed to various reasons; it was submitted that the delays since October 2020 could be attributed only to Mdluli.

This included that he applied for legal funding from the police, as he said the charges relate to the time he was in the employment of the SAPS.

The police have refused his application for state funding of his defence, as they reasoned the charges he was facing had nothing to do with them. The Mdluli camp subsequently mentioned that it would take the SAPS’s refusal for review before the court, but to date no such application has been filed.

The refusal of Mdluli to pitch in court on several occasions also caused delays in the trial getting under way.