Sunday, April 3, 2011

How Top Cop Promoted his 'right-hand man'

Police Crime Intelligence boss Lieutenant-General Richard Mdluli promoted a man who is now facing a murder rap with him - ensuring that he jumped seven ranks in one day. 

 Apr 3, 2011

 

 

Mdluli and Colonel Nkosana Sebastian Ximba were this week arrested for a murder 12 years ago. 

Ximba was given the promotion last year by a man described as his "father figure". It enabled him to leapfrog from a constable to a colonel. 

The Sunday Times can reveal that this is now the subject of an internal probe, while the Hawks, who arrested the duo, are also investigating. 

Oupa Ramogibe was killed in Vosloorus, east of Johannesburg, in 1999 after a love triangle involving himself, Mdluli and a woman.
Mdluli and Ximba then worked at the Vosloorus police station, where Mdluli was the station commander . 

The two, along with Warrant Officer Samuel Dlomo and a fourth suspect, also a colonel, will, on Thursday, face charges of murder, kidnapping and defeating the ends of justice.
Senior police officers said they were investigating how the four managed to "frustrate" the long-running probe. 

Slain underworld boss Cyril Beeka took an interest in the case months before his March 21 assassination. 

Late last year, he assisted the Sunday Times in tracking down Ramogibe's family and promised them a proper investigation was being carried out .
Yesterday, over 1000 people attended Beeka's funeral in Cape Town, where an ANC flag was draped over his coffin. 

Asked about the promotion, police spokesman Colonel Vish Naidoo said: "I want to emphasise that the national police commissioner (General Bheki Cele) neither signed nor approved (it) ."
Mdluli, one of the most powerful cops in the country, has been at loggerheads with Cele.
Tensions heightened when two of his officers raided the office of the public protector Thuli Madonsela days after she slammed Cele in a lease-agreement scandal. 

This week, a senior police officer said Ximba was "Mdluli's right-hand man for years".
A slew of arrests are also expected, with more claims of crime intelligence hampering investigations by the Hawks. 

In the two weeks after Beeka's murder, the police have been rocked by: 

�The arrest of Czech fugitive Radovan Krejcir and claims that he was being fed information by rogue intelligence officers;
�The arrest of Mdluli, who has been fingered in covert operations involving the bugging of phones, including those of former Scorpions investigators in the Jacob Zuma corruption case and the Jackie Selebi trial; and
�Growing claims that Cele wants to rid the police of allies of his disgraced predecessor,Selebi.
Mdluli and Beeka have both been linked to Krejcir, who, since arriving in South Africa in 2007, has set up an elaborate network of contacts in the underworld and police. 

The Hawks have claimed that a hit list found at Krejcir's home during a raid included Beeka's name. 

Krejcir is alleged to have been given telephone recordings by crime intelligence officers. 

Ximba held directorships in 10 companies. 

Meanwhile, at the Beeka funeral, friends and family paid their last respects at the Good Hope Christian Centre. 

An emotional Edward Beeka, the brother of the karate instructor, came close to tears during his eulogy, saying: "God is still merciful. We don't seek revenge." 

Beeka's girlfriend at the time of his death, who was not identified, also spoke briefly about the pain of being left behind with the couple's 11-month-old son. - Additional reporting by Bobby Jordan 

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