Two TMPD officers arrested after threats and theft

Two more Tshwane Metro Police Department (TMPD) officers have been arrested this week, following a traumatic incident near Zandfontein Cemetery, on Monday, that involved alleged extortion and armed robbery.

The two officers stopped a woman, who was driving with her two-year-old son and three-year-old daughter in the car. When the woman failed to produce her driver’s licence, one of the officers tried to solicit a bribe. She refused to pay and her daughter began to cry.
   
At this point, one of the officers allegedly drew his firearm and threatened to shoot the child, before money was forcibly grabbed out of the vehicle’s ashtray.
   
The woman reported the incident to Hercules Police Station, and, following investigation, the two officers were arrested on Tuesday evening.
   
Crime Line head, Yusuf Abramjee, has complimented the South African Police Service (SAPS) and TMPD for their swift action. “We need to get the rotten metro cops behind bars. We appeal to the public to blow the whistle on these crooked cops,” he says.  
   
Three weeks ago, we reported on two TMPD who were arrested after trying to solicit a bribe from Abramjee. Six other officers were subsequently implicated in corruption and a robbery in two separate incidents.
   
Howard Dembovsky, national chairperson of the Justice Project South Africa (JPSA), says “urgent interventions” are required to clamp down on rotten metro police officers: “We are very concerned. We need decisive action by municipalities and law enforcement agencies.”
   
Crime Line and JPSA urge all motorists to refrain from resorting to paying bribes and to immediately report any solicitation of bribes at the time they are demanded.
   
“We wish to urge the public to join us in demanding that swift and harsh action is taken against any law enforcement official who abuses his or her power in order to extort monies from members of the public. The severest sentences should be handed down by the courts when law enforcement officers are convicted of extortion and/or corruption.
   
“The same should apply to motorists who think that it is okay to summarily bribe traffic officials,” the organisations say.