Two former police officers and a clerk were sentenced to five years in prison after accepting a R700 bribe from a couple arrested for theft.
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Siyabulela Klaas and Mzimasi Soji were stationed at Khayelitsha police station, and Phumelele Solani was an administrative clerk at Harare police station when they accepted the bribe in 2016.
The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) reported that the Bellville Specialised Commercial Crimes Court sentenced the trio to eight years of direct imprisonment for corruption, with three years suspended for five years.
They were also sentenced to 12 months in prison for attempting to obstruct the administration of justice, with Soji receiving a 12-month sentence for obstructing justice.
The court ordered that the sentences run concurrently, effectively sentencing each accused to five years in direct imprisonment.
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Ezmeralda Johnson, a state prosecutor advocate, claimed that police received information about a stolen generator from a shop in Site C, Khayelitsha, in October 2016.
‘Police found the generator at the mentioned address on October 26, 2016, and arrested Mzoxolo Sigwela and Siyabonga Thabatha.’
‘Hlombekazi Fani was later arrested when she arrived at the Khayelitsha police station. Sigwela and Fani are husband and wife and live at the address where police found the generator.’
The NPA noted that Klaas stated that they could make a plan to release the three officers if they paid R600, with R200 for each officer.
Fani was released that evening after signing a statement drafted by Soji claiming to have been in Butterworth, Eastern Cape, on the day they were arrested.
An investigation also revealed that Klaas never filed Fani’s statement in a docket, while a statement commissioned by Soji was discovered in Soji’s locker.
Nicolette Bell, the Western Cape’s director of public prosecutions, welcomed the sentence, saying corrupt government officials had no place.
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