Two men received suspended sentences and will undergo two years of correctional supervision after admitting to inducing a Pietermaritzburg prosecutor to get rid of their case dockets.
The sentences were the result of plea bargain agreements entered into by Pietermaritzburg residents Siphesihle Mgabi, 23, and Desmond Vuyani Zaca, 36, who had been charged with drunken driving.
Their sentences include conditions that they render 384 hours of community service each, submit to house arrest and refrain from using alcohol and narcotics for two years.
In a plea before magistrate Paul Ableman, Zaca said he had been arrested on November 24. He had seen prosecutor Amos Ngcobo in court. They knew each other.
He saw Ngcobo again at a pub that night and had asked about his case and what to expect. Ngcobo had said that fines ranged from R3 000 to R12 000 and explained what was taken into account.
Zaca then asked if there was a way to get a lenient sentence as it was his first offence.
"He said it does not depend on him. He later told me he would sort it out," said Zaca.
He said Ngcobo had later said he would help him, but there was no specific agreement on what would be done.
In February the case was adjourned as the docket could not be found, and in March the case was thrown out of court.
Zaca admitted he had realised that Ngcobo had "made the docket disappear".
He said he had not paid Ngcobo and that his initial approach to Ngcobo had been innocent, but that he had later realised the prosecutor would make the case disappear in an underhand manner.
Mgabi said he had been arrested on February 2. Three weeks later he had seen Ngcobo, whom he knew, at a pub and had asked him if he could help him. Ngcobo said that the docket would cost R2 000.
Mgabi arranged to meet Ngcobo again at the pub three weeks later and, on that occasion, handed him R800.
Mgabi's mother later engaged an attorney and he no longer needed Ngcobo's services.
The case was postponed a further two times because the docket was not at court. At the time, Mgabi had not known that Ngcobo already had the docket, the court was told.
Mgabi had not seen Ngcobo again, and had not known he had been arrested.