TWO FORMER POLICE OFFICERS CONVICTED FOR CORRUPTION
The Bellville Commercial Crims Court has convicted two former police officers, Siyabonga Dyakophu and Anele Komanisi, on a charge of corruption and the court will sentence them on 30 November 2022.
The court charged and convicted the two with Contravention of S4(1)(a) of POCA – Corrupt Activities relating to public officers (accepting gratification).
The State alleges that in January 2020, the police arrested the employee of Gabriel Security Services, Gareth Perry, for assault on an alleged shoplifter.
The case did not proceed and on 05 March 2020, the two police officers met with the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the security company, Jacque Wolhuter, to explain to him what happened to the case against Perry, and how hard they worked to get to a stage where Perry could no longer be prosecuted.
They then demanded R2 000 from Wolhuter, for their challenging work and agreed to meet him on 09 March 2020, for the CEO to hand over the money.
Wolhuter reported the matter to the police who then obtained authorisation to set up a trap. On 9 March 2022, Anti-Corruption Investigation Unit members conducted the trap at Goodwood Mall, with Wolhuter as the agent. He handed over the trap money contained in envelopes to the accused and police arrested them while in possession of the trap money.
The prosecutor, Adv. Aurelia Harmse argued that the accused were police officers who were supposed to uphold and enforce the law. They were also in breach of their legal duty and SAPS duties and brought the already tainted reputation of the SAPS further into disrepute.
