Ekurhuleni metro police officers implicated in illegal truck stripping and corruption

Another allegation of possible corruption and criminality within the Ekurhuleni Municipality police was revealed at the Madlanga Commission when an Independent Police Investigative Directorate (IPID) senior investigating officer was testifying on Friday. 

IPID’s assistant director Thulani Magagula told the commission that two Ekurhuleni Metro Police Department (EMPD) officers, whom he named, were suspects in the illegal stripping of a truck, which was transporting goods worth over R1 million.

He said the goods also allegedly disappeared at the hands of the two police officers. 

He claimed that the officers allegedly forced the truck, which belonged to a Malawian man who operated a transport business, to drive to an unknown destination. 

He said the police had alleged that the goods had been stolen from a businessman in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), and hidden in a plot in Putfontein belonging to a Zimbabwean national. 

Magagula said when the officers arrived at the plot, they found the truck loaded with the goods to be transported to another Zimbabwean national in Mpumalanga. 

He said the truck owner, who was against the officers diverting the direction of the truck, arrived at the plot only to find the truck being escorted by EMPD, and he followed it until he was blocked by a road accident in Germiston and lost track of it.

The Malawian then looked for the truck at various South African Police Service (SAPS) pounds but did not find it. 

“He requested the tracking of the vehicle, however, the tracker was no longer functional,” Magagula said.

He said when the truck owner, who is the complainant in the matter, finally found his truck at the EMPD pound, some of its parts were stripped off and diesel drained out. 

He filed a complaint with the EMPD, which subsequently reported the matter to the SAPS.

The SAPS transferred the case to the IPID.  

He said during his investigation of the incident, he obtained the invoice of the goods and filed it in the case docket. 

He said the truck was kept at the EMPD pound without the EMPD officers registering a criminal case with the SAPS, and making an arrest in connection with the goods, which they claimed were stolen from Kinshasa. 

He said the EMPD officers later released the truck to its Malawian owner using the SAP 299 form, which the SAPS officers fill out before releasing stolen property back to its rightful owner. 

He said it was illegal for the metro police officers to be in possession of this form as it only belonged to the SAPS. 

“The statement of the owner of the plot, a Zimbabwe national, has not been obtained (because) he had declined to make a statement because of fear for his personal safety, (while) his evidence is material and essential to the substantiation of the case against the EMPD members implicated.

“I further state that the owner of the goods has not been obtained as his whereabouts are presently unknown.

“I further state that the EMPD engaged the service of the truck driver to remove the truck from the plot and transport it to the municipal pound, but the said truck driver cannot be traced, and his statement has not been secured; as a result, his role in the matter cannot be determined at this stage,” said Magagula.

He said there was prima facie evidence against the two EMPD officers.

“This is evident from the fact that the exhibits contained in the truck were not recorded in the SAP13 property register. 

“Furthermore, no case was opened by the EMPD members to the SAPS in relation to the impounding of the truck and its trailer,” said Magagula.

He said when the truck was escorted, it was in good condition, but when it was found at the EMPD premises, it was broken. 

Magagula also said the officers claimed to have released the goods that were loaded in the truck through the SAP299 form. 

However, he said that there were no records of the goods being released to the owner or the location where they were released.

He said the truck and goods were not even registered in the EMPD’s occurrence book, which kept a record of police operations. 

This prompted commissioner Advocate Sesi Baloyi SC to ask Magagula why the IPID did not recommend to the EMPD to discipline the two officers, as there was sufficient ground for that and a proof for misconduct.

“The proof for misconduct does not depend on a complainant's statement, but it is a matter that you have on record,” said Baloyi.

Magagula said the IPID’s procedure did not allow the recommendations to be made before the conclusion of the investigation.

“When we make a recommendation is when we know that everything is here, there is a docket and a compiled report to the DPP (Director of Public Prosecution).

“With all those reports, is where we have finalised the matter so that when the auditors come, they will see that everything was done,” he said. 

However, he said without witness statements, his investigation into the matter has stagnated, but he said he was still determined to continue with the investigation until he found the truth about the disappearance of the goods and the stripping of the truck.

“But I hope to persuade it (investigation) with a belief that at a later stage, they (witnesses) will comply.

“Currently, he (complainant) is afraid, as when I communicate with him, he says he is afraid of the police.

“He would say, ‘You know the police would kill me, and I don’t want to be in that position,” said Magagula.

bongani.hans@inl.co.za