South African Police service – Page 2

Corrupt Cape policeman’s trial continues today

The trial of a Western Cape constable who tried to extort money from a taxi driver allegedly caught with perlemoen continues in the Bellville Specialised Commercial Crime Court on Friday.

Constable Mjatya Bukani, 35, and a police reservist were on patrol on December 8, 2010, when they searched a taxi driven by Wanana Gwadino and allegedly found a bag of perlemoen.

Bukani apparently demanded money from Gwadino, turning down his first offer of R300, but accepting a second offer of R500.

Bukani later allegedly demanded R500 more, which Gwadino withdrew from an ATM.

According to the charge sheet, Gwadino and his two passengers were locked in a holding cell, and were later released without being charged.

Bukani and the reservist have pleaded not guilty to a count of extortion, and an alternative count of corruption. – Sapa

Senior South African cop killed

A senior Gauteng Province police officer was found dead in an open field near Hammanskraal north of Pretoria on Tuesday, police said.

“Early this morning his body was found with his hands and feet tied,” Brigadier Neville Malila said.

“Forensic experts are on the scene to establish the cause of death.”

He said the officer’s vehicle was found abandoned on the R101 in Rooival. His family told investigators he left home to go to work shortly after 2pm on Monday.

“Late yesterday afternoon police officers on patrol spotted the officer’s vehicle parked next to the road,” said Malila.

“On inspection they found a uniform and an appointment certificate in the vehicle and started enquiring on the officers whereabouts.”

The officer’s name would not be released until his family was notified. – Sapa

1000 South African policemen arrested for crimes

One thousand police officials have been arrested for crime in the past three years, Gauteng police commissioner Mzwandile Petros said on Thursday.

The arrests were made between September 2010 and April this year, he said at a New Age breakfast on government’s drug clean-up campaign.

With a police station comprising about 300 officials, this meant three stations had in effect been closed down.

Petros said this would not deter police management from its drive to clean up the service.

“It takes two years to train a police official. Even if we are left with 10, or one police official, that is how far we are going to take the campaign,” he said. – Sapa

Black crowd steal pigs from overturned truck while South African police look on

A crowd of people rushed to steal pigs from an overturned truck near Badplaas in Mpumalanga, Beeld reported on Thursday.

NSPCA inspector Petro Oosthuizen said the truck, carrying 139 pigs to an abattoir, overturned near the town on Tuesday afternoon.

The driver was seriously injured and transported to hospital.

She said she and four colleagues had euthanased 53 injured pigs, and the owner of the animals, a farmer from the Vryheid district, was informed of the accident.

“We decided to wait with the remaining pigs, until the owner arrived.”

A shocked Oosthuizen said that suddenly, “as if out of nowhere”, a crowd of people descended on the accident scene.

Some of the animals were picked up by their back legs and others were dragged off.

All the pig carcasses and the 86 live pigs were carried off, while the local police reportedly declined to intervene.

“We begged them to help us to protect the pigs but they said they were powerless against such a large crowd,” Oosthuizen said. – Sapa

Three Cape Town policemen appear for theft and extortion

Three policemen accused of theft and extortion appeared in the Bellville Specialised Commercial Crime Court on Thursday.

They allegedly kicked down Anton Pillay’s door last February and confiscated a plastic bank bag containing 15 sachets of tik and R1650, he told the court.

He said the policemen remarked that he had a lot of money, and said they would let him go if he gave them R100 each. He did so and was allowed to leave.

Pillay was testifying in the trial of Constable Nkosinathi Mdiya, Warrant Officer Mogamat Meniers and Sergeant Heinrich Gordon, all of whom have plead not guilty.

Mdiya is charged with two counts of theft, two of robbery and one of extortion; Meniers is charged with one count of theft and one of corruption; and Gordon faces three theft counts, two of corruption, two of extortion, and two of robbery.

Pillay told the court he lived in an informal settlement in Diep River, and that his girlfriend went to the police after an argument.

He said he was asleep, and groggy from drugs, when the police knocked on his shack door, then smashed it down.

Asked by prosecutor Xolile Jonas what happened to the drugs, he said: “I don’t know, and did not care. I just wanted to be out of the police station.”

He said no investigation docket was opened against him.

Asked why he laid charges against Meniers and Gordon, he said: “They had arrested me before on other charges, and I thought it wrong of them to take my money like that”.

Defence attorney Shantell Morgan said Meniers would tell the court that Pillay’s girlfriend went to the police because he was holding her child hostage, and that their visit to his home had nothing to do with drugs or money.

“My client will say that when they arrived at your shack they heard a child screaming behind the locked shack door and that they kicked down the door because Pillay refused to open it.”

Pillay denied taking the child hostage.

The case was postponed until September 16. – Sapa

60% of 10111 crimes ‘not registered’

Nearly 60 percent of the crimes reported to the police’s 10111 call centre do not get registered and are not investigated, The Star reported on Monday.

The SA Police Service’s (SAPS) performance claims could not be verified because of a lack of administrative control, according to Auditor General Terence Nombembe.

So-called “positive incident reports” to 10111 call centres had to be entered on the SAPS case administration system (CAS) to generate a docket with a case number. But 58 percent of positive incident reports were not linked to dockets on the CAS.

Nombembe’s findings are contained in the SAPS annual report for 2011/12 tabled in Parliament on Friday.

National Assembly police oversight committee acting chairwoman, ANC MP Annelize van Wyk said 58 percent was “a huge number” that could not easily be explained away.

DA spokeswoman on police, Dianne Kohler Barnard, said: “While citizens believe that their cases are being investigated by a SAPS that costs them R62.4 billion per annum, the criminals will no doubt be delighted to hear that the majority of their activities are never even looked at by our ailing SAPS.”

Nombembe gave SAPS an unqualified audit.

The department spent 98.9 percent of its budget in 2011/12, leaving R617 million unspent. This included R92 million for detective services. – Sapa