Soweto police have refused to suspend five high-ranking officers who have been accused of, among other things, driving a stolen vehicle and selling confiscated liquor and dagga to local shebeens and taverns.
The officers - a captain, two sergeants and two inspectors - have also been accused of abusing state vehicles by using them to transport their children to and from school, as well as signing the register for absent colleagues.
The allegations have been made by the Police and Prisons' Civil Rights Union (Popcru) after the organisation conducted a secret investigation.
The claims were presented in February to the management at Moroka police station, where the five work. However, Inspector Mbhazima Shiburi, the Soweto police media liaison officer, said: "Why should we suspend them? On the basis of mere allegations? We have to test these claims first before we can consider a suspension."
But Peter Mofokeng, Popcru's Soweto chairperson, said: "We have good prima facie evidence against the accused. We have been asking the management to suspend them with their full pay until the outcome of the investigations. As it is now, the register where we allege they signed for one another has suddenly gone missing. Other tracks, we suspect, are also going to be covered."
Shiburi confirmed that the Z8 police register on the dates where the five have been implicated had gone missing.
Popcru alleged that the corruption by five officers had been going on since 1988 when the union first requested an investigation. Shiburi said Popcru's charges had been officially registered and that the case was being investigated by both the internal investigations unit and the anti-corruption unit.
"These are the bodies that will, as and when they deem fit, make recommendations as to whether the accused should be suspended, not Popcru," he said.
The charges against the five policemen include:
- The destruction of documents belonging to other members.
- That they have been charging a fee to people who request to park their vehicles on the premises of the police station.
- Staying away from work and getting their friends to sign the register for them.
At a meeting held between Popcru representatives and the station's management last week, the two parties reached a deadlock on the investigation.
Popcru's Mofokeng said: "It is in the interest of Popcru to play the ball and not the person. But management seem to be bent on playing the union, and not tackling the allegations."
Popcru Soweto has informed Nomvula Mokonyane, Gauteng's safety and security MEC, about the alleged goings-on at Moroka.
Popcru's provincial executive committee will meet this week to map out the way forward. "We demand justice. The evidence favours us. It is therefore difficult for us to fathom why it has already taken more than a month without the investigators making recommendations on suspensions, either for or against," Mofokeng said.