Former Gauteng Hawks head blames Mdluli for ending his career
Johannesburg - Former Gauteng Hawks head Major-General Shadrack Sibiya has blamed former crime intelligence head Richard Mdluli for ending his career.
Sibiya told the South Gauteng High Court in Johannesburg on Thursday that his career had run into trouble after he began investigating the murder of Mdluli's former love rival, Oupa Ramogibe.
Sibiya is now the head of Johannesburg's anti-corruption unit. The court summoned him to lead evidence in the case of Mdluli and his co-accused Mthembeni Mthunzi.
Mdluli and Mthunzi were appearing on charges relating to the 1999 kidnapping of Ramogibe, who allegedly had an affair with Mdluli's former lover, Tshidi Buthelezi.
They face charges of intimidation, kidnapping, assault with the intent to commit grievous bodily harm, and defeating the ends of justice. They pleaded not guilty.
The charges against Mdluli and his co-accused stem from the alleged extreme lengths Mdluli went to between 1997 and 1999 to find out where Buthelezi and Ramogibe were hiding.
During her relationship with Mdluli, Buthelezi met Ramogibe and they began a relationship. They married "secretly" on July 22, 1998.
'Falsely incriminated'
Sibiya told the court that investigating Mdluli was not an easy task because he was the head of police crime intelligence.
He told the court he was tasked with investigating Mdluli following an article in the Sowetan, which raised questions about why Mdluli was appointed to such a position while facing serious charges.
Sibiya said he had named the investigation Ulibambe Lingashoni, which means "Don't let the sun set on you".
Mdluli had previously said the project was created to "falsely incriminate him and pull him down".
A meeting was held to discredit former Hawks head Anwa Dramat and himself, Sibiya said. He added that he was suspended while he was on leave.
Ike Motloung, for Mdluli, told him that the previous investigations had exonerated Mdluli. He said Sibiya wanted to conduct the investigations on his own, to implicate Mdluli.
Sibiya denied this and said the results of the first batch of investigations they did on Mdluli had disappeared.
Hawks head Berning Ntlemeza fired Sibiya in September 2015 for his alleged role in the illegal rendition of five Zimbabweans in 2010.
Illegal renditions
Sibiya said false statements were made about him, including his role in the renditions.
Last Friday, the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria set aside Ntlemeza's appointment and declared it invalid and illegal. He has filed an application for leave to appeal against the ruling.
Sibiya was found guilty of gross misconduct after a disciplinary inquiry into the renditions.
Advocate Mxolisi Zondo, who conducted the inquiry, found that although Sibiya could not be placed on the scene in Diepsloot on November 5 and 23, 2010, his cellphone records and his presence at the Hawks offices when Zimbabwean police visited indicated that he would have known about it.
The Zimbabwean nationals were wanted for the murder of a police officer in Bulawayo. Three of the five were subsequently killed, allegedly by Zimbabwean police.
Dramat resigned in April 2015, after being implicated in the renditions.
Independent Police Investigative Directorate head Robert McBride was suspended for allegedly tampering with a report into the allegations. McBride's suspension was overturned, and criminal charges against him were dropped.
Sibiya would continue to give evidence on Friday.
