South Africa has been ranked the 70th most corrupt country out of a list of 180. Picture: iStock
A 52-year-old police crime intelligence officer from the Eastern Cape has been convicted of corruption after he extorted money from a state witness.
Khangelani Ngejane worked at the Crime Intelligence Division at the Mount Frere Police Station.
The witness in question was formerly a suspect in a murder investigation. But the charges were dropped after the person started cooperating with the state.
Ngejane lied to the witness that a murder case was reopened and he’d been assigned to continue investigations.
He demanded R20,000 for the witness to “make the docket disappear”. The murder suspect-turned-state-witness agreed to pay the money in four instalments of R5,000.
But after paying the first instalment, the witness had a change of heart and decided to report Ngejane to the East London-based Serious Corruption Investigation team.
He was caught in a sting operation and the “trap money” was recovered from Ngejane.
The team began investigating the complaint in May 2013, and nearly eight and a half years later, Ngejane was found guilty of corruption by the Mount Frere Magistrate Court.
Ngejane’s case has been transferred to the Lusikisiki Regional Court for sentencing. That case will be heard on 19 October.
Compiled by Narissa Subramoney
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