Former crime intelligence boss Richard Mdluli outside the Gauteng High Court in Johannesburg. (file)

• A warrant of arrest was issued for Richard Mdluli after he failed to appear in court from prison.
• Mdluli is serving a five-year sentence for kidnapping and assault.
• Mdluli and two others are facing a string of charges related to the secret service account.

A warrant of arrest has been issued against convicted former Crime Intelligence boss Richard Mdluli.

Mdluli is currently serving a five-year jail term for kidnapping and assaulting Oupa Ramogibe in 1999.

He was expected to appear in the Gauteng High Court in Pretoria together with his two co-accused and former colleagues Heine Barnard and Solomon Lazarus, on Thursday.

Only Barnard and Lazarus appeared in court.

Investigating Directorate spokesperson Sindisiwe Twala said Judge Bert Bam earlier ruled that Mdluli was ordered to appear and that a request letter be sent to the Department of Correctional Services to bring him to court.

It was not immediately clear why an arrest warrant was needed if Mdluli was in prison.

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Twala said Bam stated that there was no reason why Mdluli could not appear on Thursday.

Mdluli, Barnard and Lazarus face multiple charges of corruption, fraud, theft and defeating the ends of justice, related to alleged gross abuse of the secret service account.

The allegations include payment of private trips to China and Singapore, private use of witness protection houses, conversion of this property for personal use and the leasing out of Mdluli’s private residence to the state in order to pay his bond, amongst others.

The accused are expected to appear in court again on 12 March.

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