CJ break-in lawyer has history of SSA cases

A lawyer acting for one of the men linked to the break-in at the office of the Chief Justice has a history of taking on clients accused of crimes involving the State Security Agency (SSA) and the police, claims a News24 report. Sammy Mahlangu is one of the legal representatives for Nkosinathi Moses Msimango, the man arrested on Friday in connection with the theft of 15 computers from the office of Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng last Saturday. Msimango, who was arrested after he’d handed himself in at the Boschkop police station in Pretoria, has strongly denied that he has links to the SSA, as has been widely speculated since the brazen robbery. Mahlangu, who assured News24 that his client is in no way connected to the country’s intelligence structures, recently represented another man who was accused of being the mastermind behind the theft of R17m in foreign currency from the SSA’s head office in Pretoria in December 2015. The Hawks labelled the crime as an ‘inside job’ and two SSA employees – William Mmotong and Khayalethu Mgatyelwa – were later charged alongside Mahlangu’s client, Albert Ramabele. The charges against all three men have since been dropped.