Police captain arrested after demanding R250k from complainant

A 52-year-old police captain was arrested for allegedly demanding R250 000 from a complainant, threatening to freeze his bank accounts if he did not pay up.

According to a report from the provincial commissioner of police in Limpopo, Lieutenant General Thembi Hadebe, said that the corruptible offence was committed on 10 December in Bela-Bela.

The female captain was attached to the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigations at Pretoria Central, Gauteng Province. She had allegedly approached a complainant registered to one of her cases and informed him that the police had noticed a number of fraudulent transactions going off from his account.

She told him that the police had thereby intended to freeze his bank account for further investigation. The police captain then came to an agreement with the complainant, demanding that he deposit R250 000 into her account in exchange for the freezing of the account not to happen.

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The matter was reported to the police who then commenced with an investigation. A sting operation was conducted at Bela Bela where the alleged suspect was arrested after receiving the money from the complainant.

“We welcome this arrest and warn other members of the South African Police Service that corrupt activities will not be tolerated in the Organisation,” Lieutenant General Hadebe said.

The suspect is scheduled to appear in court on Monday 19 December 2022 facing a charge of corruption.

Corruption in the public sector

In a separate incident just days before, a former police officer was also arrested along with 6 other suspects for the alleged assaul and kidnapping of a 37-year-man in Nelspruit. The alleged kidnapping incident was reported to have been intercepted by members of the South African National Defence Force.

Also in Nelspruit, the Hawks together with the Special Investigation Unit and the Judiciary ensured the arrest of three suspects on charges of corruption, money laundering, fraud and contravention of the Public Finance Management Act (PMFA) for R4.2 million monetary value.

The trio were released on R15 000 bail each and the case was postponed to 19 January 2023 for further investigation.

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