WeeklySA_AdminSQUASH:The cops allegedly arranged for payment in exchange for the docket not to be registered
By Frank Maponya
Two Limpopo police officers have learnt the hard way that crime does not pay.
This, after the two sergeants were arrested on charges of corruption and defeating the ends of justice following an incident in which they allegedly convinced a woman whose son had raped a minor to pay the victim’s mother an amount of money in exchange for the rape case not to be registered.
The officers, stationed at the Tshilwavhusiku Police Station in the Louis Trichardt area, had allegedly demanded money from the alleged rapist’s mother, to pay the victim’s mother in order for them (cops) not to register the rape case.
According to police spokesperson Brigadier Motlafela Mojapelo, on May 28 the officers allegedly called the mother of the suspect in the rape of a nine-year-old girl to pay R8 000 in cash to the victim’s mother in exchange for the rape case not to be registered.
Mojapelo said the 23-year-old suspect’s mother had obliged. He said the officers allegedly took the victim’s mother from her house and drove to the home of the alleged rapist where they found his mother.
“The rape suspect’s mother then gave the amount of R8 000 in cash to the mother of the victim. But afterwards, the two officers received an amount of R1 000 to share between themselves,” said Mojapelo.
He added the officers returned to merely recorded the incident in the occurrence book, indicating that the victim’s mother did not wish to continue with the rape case.
“The members then destroyed the unregistered case docket,” he said, adding that the arrest of the officers was made by members of the provincial Anti-Corruption Unit in Louis Trichardt.
He said the rape case has since been re-opened and that the alleged rapist had been arrested. The officers had been identified as sergeants Muddzhiwa Adolphus Netshiendeulu (40) and Mafelatshuma Allen Makananisa (48). The two appeared in the Polokwane Magistrate’s Court and were granted bail of R2 000 each. Their case was postponed to June 28 for further police investigation.
