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Six police officers attached to the Maitland Flying Squad are scheduled to appear in court on Thursday 30 March on corruption charges.
The officers were arrested earlier today (Tuesday).
The two sergeants and four constables, aged between 31 and 42, were arrested by members of the provincial Anti-Corruption Unit. They were detained at the Cape Town Central Police Station.
The arrest follows a six months investigation into the officers' activities.
One was arrested at his home and others during an on-duty parade. Among others, they are accused of corrupt activities, including instances where boxes of abalone were seized from suspects on several occasions without making arrests or handing in the abalone as exhibits.
Provincial police spokesperson Col Andrè Traut says the accused also harboured a corrupt relationship with persons on the wrong side of the law by escorting drugs with a police vehicle.
According to Traut, more arrests are imminent. “The investigation into the corrupt activities of the members is still underway, and as the matter unfolds, more charges could be brought against the members, who are now suspended from the police service,” says Traut.
Simon Rakgokong, Provincial Secretary for the South African Policing Union (SAPU), says: “We do not condone criminality however we want to state that no one is above the law. We will allow the processes to unfold and they will see their day in court. What we would not like to see is for these members to be treated as guilty before proven so by the courts. We will however welcome any results from court. Let us not allow ourselves to trial them through social media.”
The Western Cape Provincial Police Commissioner Lt Gen Thembisile Patekile welcomed the arrests. He warned that corrupt members masquerading as police officers will be brought to book to face the full might of the law.
