A FORMER POLICE OFFICER who was recently sentenced to 17 years in prison for accepting stolen goods to obtain evidence in a 2018 murder case, has challenged his sentence at the Pinetown District Court.
That is Lieutenant Colonel Khephu Ndlovu who is the victim in this case and another police officer, Sergeant Bonginkosi Dlamini, they say that the district magistrate, Muntukayise Khumalo, has erred by issuing a sentence that they should be imprisoned for 17 years.
Ndlovu and Dlamini accepted R120 000 to weaken the evidence in the case of the nomination of the former leader of one of the ANC wards in Theku Region, Mr. Thulani Nxumalo.
It is said that Dlamini did this as part of the Political Killings Task Team (PKTT) infamous for disbanding the suspended Police Minister, Mr. Senzo Mchunu.
He was an investigator in the case of Nxumalo’s murder and it is said that Ndlovu was connecting the investigator with the family that wanted to arrest Nxumalo.
According to the documents requesting permission to appeal the case filed in the court, the police objected to one of the State’s witnesses, saying that he contradicted himself while testifying and that the court failed to properly consider that conflict when giving its verdict.
Dlamini went on to say that the court failed to take into account the six years he had spent waiting for the case to be completed when it handed down the sentence.
“The court wrongly blamed Dlamini for delaying the trial,” read the court documents.
Meanwhile: 60-year-old Ndlovu says the court failed to consider his age and health when sentencing him.
Both of these former police officers said that another court would reach a different conclusion and stated that they intend to request permission to appeal the case before the High Court of Pietermaritzburg.