Cape Town cop nabbed after alleged
dealer's docket disappears
2016-04-22
14:17
Tammy Petersen, News24
Cape Town - A Lentegeur police station detective was arrested on
Friday morning for alleged corruption after a drug dealer’s docket disappeared,
Western Cape police said.
The provincial organised crime unit arrested the 34-year-old
officer when he arrived at work, Constable Noloyiso Rwexana said.
The sergeant allegedly submitted a duplicate case docket to court,
omitting certain details and adding a statement indicating that the original
docket was gone and that insufficient evidence existed to prosecute.
This resulted in a charge of drug dealing being withdrawn against
a suspect.
The officer would appear in the Mitchells Plain Magistrate’s Court
on Monday on charges of corruption and defeating the ends of justice.
Mitchells Plain community police forum chairperson Hanif Loonat
told News24 it was disturbing that instead of criminals being nabbed off the
street, they were being arrested within the police’s ranks.
“It takes the crime-fighting efforts in the wrong direction,” he
said.
“It is especially upsetting that this happened at a station like
Lentegeur in Mitchells Plain, where drugs arrests are extremely challenging.
This won’t help us eradicate this issue on our streets.”
Loonat insisted there was large-scale corruption in the force,
especially among the detectives.
“The majority are illicitly enriching themselves this way. They
are making tens of thousands of rands a month, tax free [through pay-offs]. But
we are watching. You will get caught.”
