S. African police selling their uniforms to gangsters
August 15, 2013
South African policemen
Urgent action was needed to stop police uniforms from landing in the
wrong hands, the Bellville Specialised Commercial Crime Court in Cape Town
heard on Monday.
Captain Cathline Japhta, of the police Tactical Response Team, told the
court: “When we heard that a police officer was involved in the illegal sale of
police uniforms, we needed to act with urgency.
“All we knew was that a police officer was selling police uniforms, but
we had no idea of who he or she was,” she said.
She testified at the resumption of the trial involving police captain
Esmareld Bailey, 44, on eight charges – one of corruption, another of the
illegal possession of ammunition, a third involving the possession or use of
drugs, and five of defeating the ends of justice.
She has pleaded not guilty, before magistrate Sabrina Sonnenberg.
Questioned by prosecutor Xolile Jonas, Japhta told the court that her
job entailed the prevention of crime, with the focus on drugs and gangsters.
She added: “We launch under-cover operations, in which we telephone
people and pretend that we want to buy drugs from them.”
She said an informant told her in December 2011 that there was “someone
wanting to sell police uniforms and firearms”.
“Because of the sensitivity of the information – it was alleged that the
“someone” was a police officer – I passed on the information to our team’s
intelligence officer, and then contacted the colonel in charge of undercover
operations.
“Due to the urgency of the matter, I obtained electronic authority to
launch such an operation.”
She said the operation involved a male police constable as the buyer,
who was given R500 in R100 notes, which had been photocopied, with which to
purchase a police uniform and ammunition.
The constable was taken to a petrol filling station in Brooklyn, where
he was picked up by two other men in a white sedan, and taken to a block of
flats.
She said she followed in an unmarked police vehicle, and she and the
constable kept in contact via SMS messages.
One of the men in the white sedan, Waleed Diedericks, went up to the
fifth floor of the complex, and returned carrying a red travel bag.
Soon afterwards, she received an SMS from the “buyer” that money and a
uniform had exchanged hands.
Japhta told the court: “I moved quickly to Diedericks, and identified
myself to him.
“The constable handed the red bag to me and said he had just paid R500
for the contents.
“I opened the bag, and it contained a police cap, two pairs of blue
police trousers, a police shirt with a badge embroidered on it, an orange and
yellow police reflector jacket and a small bank bag with ammunition.
“The constable pointed to Diedericks and said he had the money.”
Japhta said she was present when another police official removed the
money from Diedericks’s trouser pocket.
She said she informed Hendricks that he was under arrest for selling a
police uniform to undercover police officials.
Although she explained to Diedericks that he had no obligation to say
anything, he said he had obtained the uniform from a police captain and
insisted on taking them up to Bailey’s apartment.
Diedericks was himself sentenced last year for his part in the
transaction, but the sentence was suspended on condition that he testify at
Bailey’s trial, which he has already done. – Sapa
