Three police officers arrested in connection with a robbery at a jewellery shop in Johannesburg’s CBD last week appeared in the Pretoria Magistrate’s Court yesterday.
Provincial spokeswoman Captain Pinky Tsinyane said on Monday night the case against the policemen had been postponed to Wednesday.
Asked how many police officers had been arrested so far, Tsinyane said: “Let’s stick to three for now.”
She could not say if police were looking for more suspects.
“This is in the hands of the investigators,” said Tsinyane.
The arrests started on Friday when three detectives of the Boschkop, Pretoria and Diepsloot police stations were arrested in Johannesburg following a robbery at a jewellery shop in the CBD.
A fourth suspect, believed to be the driver of their getaway car, was arrested at his Atteridgeville home late on Sunday night.
He is based at the Pretoria West police station.
A fifth suspect, also stationed at Boschkop, was also arrested on Sunday night, at a townhouse in Equestria. He was wearing a wrist watch and gold chain police believe could have been taken during a fatal robbery at the NWJ store in the Northgate Shopping Centre.
Sunday night’s arrests followed intense investigations by a team of 30 detectives from the Hawks and the Gauteng serious and violent crimes unit.
Spokesman Colonel Neville Malila said on Sunday that an R5 rifle with two magazines and 60 rounds were also confiscated and that police were looking at whether the weapon had been used in other Johannesburg mall robberies.
When police visited the homes of the suspects at the weekend they recovered 17 dockets relating to serious and violent crimes across the city in one of the homes. “This will require further investigation,” said Malila.
More than 120 police officers had been arrested since September, Malila said. This was proof that the service would not tolerate crooked officers. The message was going out that corrupt officers must leave the service and, even if they left, they would eventually be caught and dealt with.
Boschkop police station commander Lieutenant-Colonel Gavin Thekisho said yesterday he was surprised that one of his detectives had been arrested for his alleged involvement in the business robbery.
Thekisho said it would appear “outside influence” played a role in getting the detective involved in the alleged crime. Police officers who got involved in crime “must be rooted out”, he said.
Thekisho said he was seconded to the police station late in 2009 (from the Brooklyn police station) and was away from work because of injuries sustained in a car accident early this year. “I did not know him that well,” said Thekisho, adding that he had been told that the detective was due to get married in the Eastern Cape this month.
Pretoria West police station commander Colonel Nishan Moodley said he did not have full details on the police officer who was arrested in Atteridgeville.
He declined to comment further, referring all enquiries to the provincial office. - Pretoria News