‘Mdluli never told me to kill love rival’
Key witness tells inquest how two strangers attacked and murdered a cold-case complainant in 1999
USPENDED crime intelligence boss Richard Mdluli did not instruct his former co-accused Samuel Dlomo to kill his love rival Oupa Ramogibe.
Furthermore, Mdluli would have no right to give him that instruction, even if he was his superior at the Vosloorus police station.
“I wouldn’t do that, my job is to save people… not to kill or assist in killing people,” Dlomo told the Boksburg Magistrate’s Court yesterday during an inquest into the death of Ramogibe in 1999. Dlomo is a key witness in the case
According to evidence presented, Ramogibe had been having an affair with Mdluli’s former lover, Tshidi Buthelezi.
Ramogibe’s family testified that Mdluli had threatened to kill Ramogibe if he continued the affair. At that time, Mdluli was a superintendent at the Vosloorus police station.
Yesterday, the court heard that Mdluli had closed a case which Ramogibe had opened in 1998 when he was shot while driving a friend’s car.
Dlomo said he decided to investigate the cold case again as he had found that a number of factors were missing from the initial investigations.
“There was witness evidence outstanding, and the place where the deceased [Ramogibe] was shot was never visited. Cartridges from the scene were never found, and that’s why I had to locate him and do a pointing out of the scene.”
In a statement made a day after Ramogibe’s murder and read out in court yesterday, Dlomo said: “At about 1.30pm I was on duty together with the complainant [Ramogibe] in connection with case 475/12/1998. On my arrival [at
Sthe scene], I parked the police vehicle, we both got out, he pointed to where he had been shot at…” As Ramogibe continued pointing out, two men approached. Dlomo was sitting on the bonnet of the car.
“Somebody grabbed my firearm from behind and took it. He made me lie down and demanded my car keys… I heard three shots from behind and heard the car start as they continued shooting.”
After the two men left, he ran to a tuckshop to call the police. Ramogibe was lying in a pool of blood. Dlomo said he couldn’t identify the attackers.
During cross-examination, Mdluli’s counsel, Ike Motloung, put forward “a theory” about what the investigating officers believed actually happened.
“According to the theory, what you’re saying is incorrect. You must have been with Mdluli and [Lieutenant-Colonel Mthunzi-Omhle] Mtunzi and you must have fetched the deceased under a pretext of a pointing out – yet it’s an execution-style shooting, and is then masked as a robbery. Do you understand?” Motloung asked.
Dlomo replied: “Yes, I understand”.
He asserted he was never friends with Mdluli and if he had asked him to kill Ramogibe, he would have refused.
Motloung: “If the theory were to be true, that you were Mdluli’s agent, how would you have been compensated?”
Dlomo: “If I was involved in the death of my brother, maybe at this stage I’d be promoted and have cattle on a farm.”
Criminal charges against Mdluli and his alleged accomplices, Dlomo, Colonel Nkosana Sebastian Ximba and Mtunzi, were provisionally withdrawn in February pending the outcome of the inquest.
The inquest continues.