MEDIA STATEMENT BY FREEDOM UNDER LAW

Earlier today General Richard Mdluli, former head of Crime Intelligence in the SAPS, was sentenced in the High Court, Johannesburg to an effective five years imprisonment for counts of kidnapping, assault with intent to cause grevious bodily harm, assault and intimidation.

His conviction and sentencing follow a series of legal challenges over several years by Freedom Under Law to decisions which would have given Mdluli impunity and kept him in his crucial post.

The charges against him  (with other charges of fraud and corruption) had initially been withdrawn by prosecutors Chauke and Jiba. In 2012 Judge Makgoba granted Freedom Under Law an urgent order directing that Mdluli stand down from his position pending the determination of a review of that decision. 

In doing so, the Court stressed that a constitutional democracy could not tolerate a situation in which one of the country’s key crimefighters continued to perform his daily functions while himself facing serious allegations of criminality. That Mdluli had not been finally convicted of these grave crimes was not the issue.

In due course Freedom Under Law’s review of the prosecutors’ decision to withdraw charges too was upheld.

Mdluli’s trial ensued, and has extended over a lengthy period, culminating in today’s sentencing by Justice Mokgoatlheng.

In November, Mdluli will appear in the Pretoria High Court to finally face charges of fraud and corruption relating to the Crime Intelligence slush fund.  

Today’s sentencing is an important vindication of the rule of law in that one of South Africa’s most senior police officers has finally been held accountable for some of the crimes he has committed.

It is a cause for reflection that had Freedom Under Law, one of a group of civil society watchdogs active in this way, not challenged the decisions to withdraw charges and to keep former Mdluli at his desk, his impunity would have been assured.