Former SAPS crime boss set to appear in court
FORMER Kwazulu- Natal crime intelligence head major- general Deena Moodley was expected to appear in the Durban Regional court today.
Moodley’s appearance could be in connection with the SAPS Crime Intelligence fund which was allegedly looted to the tune of R5.3 million for sham operations. The Directorate for Priority Crime Colonel Katlego Mogale said the matter was with the National Prosecuting Authority’s Investigating Directorate ( ID) unit. A spokesperson for ID, Sindisiwe Twala, said the investigation was, however, with the Hawks. None could confirm if Moodley would appear in court or on what charges.
A reliable source confirmed that Moodley would be appearing in court.
Moodley left Gauteng for Durban yesterday. An internal report seen by Independent Media indicates the division’s top brass looted money from the secret service account on the pretext that they were infiltrating the EFF and Fees Must Fall leaders. Instead, some of the money was allegedly spent on luxury hotel accommodation at the Sheraton Pretoria Hotel and Drakensberg Sun Resort in Kwazulu- Natal and used to buy linen for Moodley, then head of the SAPS intelligence collection unit. The looting was allegedly disguised as crime intelligence projects named Funda, Skarou and Gustav.
Looting of the Crime Intelligence slush fund took centre- stage at the Zondo commission in September 2019 when a senior investigator for the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigations ( Hawks), Colonel Kobus Roelofse, testified that the unit’s former boss, Richard Mdluli, had abused his position and stolen millions of rand for his own benefit.
Roelofse said former Crime Intelligence finance officer major- general Solly Lazarus used the unit’s secret fund to cover travel costs for his pastor. He said Lazarus also paid for private flights for Mdluli and his family as well as other members of the unit. Mdluli’s children often flew as “secret agents” to the tune of R1.6m in 2010 and 2011.
The misuse of the crime intelligence slush fund did not end when Mdluli’s and Lazarus’s looting sprees were exposed.
Official documents show that Moodley and Colonel Preadhashni Govender spent a night at the Drakensberg Sun Resort on December 30, 2016. The duo claimed they were “attending a meeting by EFF members planning a rally” at the Durban University of Technology in January 2017 as there was a “conspiracy to commit arson by the EFF Student Command”.
But when an internal investigation established there was no EFF rally at the resort on that day, they changed their story and said they went there to meet an “unregistered informant”.