By Alex Mitchley.
While still serving a prison sentence for kidnapping and assault, former Crime Intelligence boss Richard Mdluli has been granted bail in his ongoing corruption case.
Mdluli, currently behind bars, had applied for bail in the Gauteng High Court in Pretoria in an apparent attempt to get parole.
The bail application was for the corruption, fraud and theft case relating to the alleged looting of a police slush fund between 2008 and 2012 when he and his co-accused were at the helm of Crime Intelligence.
Mdluli is an accused in the matter, along with former supply chain manager Heine Barnard and former chief financial officer Solomon Lazarus.
Mdluli was previously on a warning for the case, but the court revoked this after he failed to appear on multiple occasions.
These missed court appearances occurred in 2020 in the slush fund case while he was already serving a five-year prison sentence for the assault and kidnap of his former lover, Tshidi Buthelezi, her husband, Oupa Ramogibe, and a friend, Alice Manana, in 1998.
Bail granted
According to the bail judgment handed down on Friday, Mdluli was granted bail of R10 000 with strict conditions.
The court ordered that Mdluli could only be released on bail once he had served his sentence or is released on parole in respect of the sentence being served.
Mdluli also had to hand in his travel documents and would have to report to a police station twice a week.
Parole eligibility
While Mdluli’s attorney, Ike Motloung, previously confirmed to News24 that Mdluli was applying for bail as he was eligible for parole, the Department of Correctional Services disputed this.
According to the department, ordinarily, Mdluli would have met his minimum detention period at the end of May, as he was only required to serve one-third of his sentence before being considered for parole.
However, because he was still facing another criminal case, he would not be eligible for parole, despite serving the minimum detention period, department spokesperson Singabakho Nxumalo said.