A former policeman from Khutsong, who was arrested for corruption a decade ago, was finally sentenced this week.
Oberholzer’s Regional Court was filled with drama when Henk van Eck appeared for sentencing on July 24. Just after Magistrate Kenny Mkhatshane sentenced Van Eck, he pulled out a knife that he brought into the courtroom illegally and stabbed himself in the neck several times. Luckily the knife did not seem to be very sharp and he was taken to Carletonville Hospital for treatment before he will start to serve his sentence. The case against Van Eck started in 2014. A member of the SAPS Germiston Flying Squad, Sergeant Victor Thinamaano Mphaphuli, arrested a drug dealer in Khutsong with 320 bags of the drug nyaope and 50 rocks of crack cocaine and handed the suspect and the drugs over to his colleagues in Khutsong.
Van Eck, who was then a sergeant at the Khutsong Police Station, was tasked with taking the drugs to the SAPS Forensics Department in Pretoria. He, however, only handed in 62 bags of nyaope and 13 rocks of cocaine. It soon became clear that he had stolen some of the drugs as he had also forged documents dealing with the handover.
Van Eck was summoned to appear in court and charged. Although internal disciplinary measures were started against him, Van Eck resigned from the SAPS before this process was concluded. He was sentenced to five years imprisonment on both counts, but the sentences must be served concurrently. Although police members with who The Herald spoke welcomed the fact that the case has finally been concluded, they mentioned that Van Eck was lucky as the minimum sentence for corruption in South Africa is actually 15 years imprisonment.
It is difficult to find information about how many corruption cases against SAPS members are heard in South Africa. According to a report released by the non-profit organisation Corruption Watch in 2019, almost 24 500 reports of corruption was received during the seven years up to then. Of these, corruption cases against SAPS members accounted for 5.9% of all government corruption and amounted to 1 440 reports. At the time 52.8% of the cases came from Gauteng.
Sergeant Victor Thinamaano Mphaphuli of the Germiston Flying Squad originally confiscated the drugs that Van Eck later stole.
