Former Crime Intelligence Boss Richard Mdluli Sentenced To 5 Years In Jail
Former crime intelligence boss Richard Mdluli and his co-accused Mthembeni Mthunzi have been sentenced to an effective five years in jail for the 1999 kidnapping and assault of Oupa Ramogibe.
Mdluli’s plea not to be jailed because he is old and sickly was rejected by Judge Ratha Mokgoatlheng who said the duo deserved a custodial sentence.
Mduli and Mthunzi were convicted in July 2019 of assaulting and kidnapping Mdluli’s former lover, Tshidi Buthelezi, her husband, Ramogibe, and a friend Alice Manana in 1998. The pair were found guilty in July 2019 of two counts of kidnapping, two counts of common assault, and two counts of assault with intent to do grievous bodily harm.
Mduli and Mthunzi who were colleagues at the time. traced Ramogibe who has eloped with and secretly entering into a civil marriage with Mdluli’s customary law wife, the late Tshidi Buthelezi.
Manana was kidnapped from her home and forced to point out where Ramogibe and Buthelezi hid. She took Mduli and Mthunzi to a house in Orange Farm.
In delivering the ruling at the South Gauteng High Court on Tuesday, Judge Ratha Mokgoatlheng said Mdluli and Mthunzi abused the power and authority entrusted in them as senior policemen.
Judge Mokgoatlheng sentenced the pair to three years each for kidnapping, two years for grievous bodily harm, and a year each for common assault.
He ruled the kidnapping and common assault charges should run concurrently. The two for grievous bodily harm should run separately.
Both Buthelezi and Ramogibe have since died. Buthelezi died from an illness while Ramogibe was gunned down in 1999 and no one was brought to book for his murder.
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