NPA denies Mdluli, Breytenbach link
2012-02-03 16:41
The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) has denied a link between the possible suspension of prosecutor Glynnis Breytenbach and the dropping of charges against suspended crime intelligence boss Richard Mdluli.
“It has nothing to do with that at all,” NPA spokesperson Mthunzi Mhaga has.
He confirmed that Breytenbach, a deputy director of public prosecutions, had worked on a fraud case against Mdluli, who is the suspended head of police crime intelligence.
Mdluli had been facing two separate unrelated cases of fraud and murder.
The fraud case involved allegations about the purchase of two vehicles for his department and payments from a witness protection fund.
The case against him and co-accused Heine Barnard, who worked in witness protection, was withdrawn last December with no reasons given immediately.
Mhaga said that this was because of a lack of evidence.
The murder case relates to an accusation that Mdluli, Lieutenant-Colonel Mtunzi-Omhle Mthembeni Mtunzi, court orderly Samuel Dlomo, and Colonel Nkosana Sebastian Ximba, were involved in the killing of Oupa Ramogibe in 1999 in an apparent love triangle.
Yesterday, the NPA announced that instead of Mdluli starting his murder trial on April 10 this year, the charges against him and his co-accused would be provisionally withdrawn and an inquest held instead.
This followed a representation by Mdluli’s legal team. The NPA would not discuss details of the representation.
Depending on the outcome of the inquest, the NPA might reconsider its decision to provisionally withdraw the charges, Mhaga said.
The date and venue of the inquest would be arranged between a chief magistrate and all the parties involved.
Mhaga said the NPA would not entertain questions about reports that Breytenbach was told to stop work on a fraud investigation, which turned on mining company Imperial Crown Trading allegedly falsifying their prospecting licence in a dispute with Kumba Resources.
Breytenbach carried on with the investigation regardless of the order, it was reported.
- SAPA