Man helps Hawks catch bogus Pretoria investigators in R300k bribe docket disappearance case
The two men accused of being bogus Hawks investigators appeared in court on Monday. They demanded an enticement of R300 000 to destroy a case docket of a person under investigation.
A suspect investigated in a drug-dealing case was used as bait to catch two bogus Hawks investigators that had approached him demanding an enticement of R300 000 bribe to destroy a case docket.
The bogus investigators promised to restore his vehicle and refugee documents to him that were confiscated by the Sunnyside police.
The man instead reported the matter to the authorities.
The case was further investigated by the real Hawks Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (DPCI).
The complainant at the time was working with the Hawks in a cash entrapment that led to the arrest.
“The complainant was the direct link between us [Hawks] and the suspects. For everything to look legit, we had to use the complainant as an agent because they had asked for money from him, we could not have used any of our agents.”
Mulamu said according to the complainant initially only Molomo had approached him about the fraudulent deal.
“On the day of our operation, Molomo came with Ewulu for the collection of the money from the complainant,” she said.
“We arrested both of them because the money was handed to both.”
Mulamu said although Ewulu from Sandton and Molomo, a community street patroller in Sunnyside, both faced charges of extortion and corruption, the police impersonation charge may be added at a later stage during court proceedings.
“The investigations in the matter of the two continue to also see if there are any previous cases which the two are linked to.”
Answering questions on whether there was an issue over the disappearance of dockets, Mulamu said the Hawks were not faced with such challenges as buildings used by the authority were secure to protect the state property.
“We have not experienced an issue where a docket disappeared from our offices,” she said.
She said in a worst-case scenario when a docket or document could get lost was if an official would be hijacked or a car gets stolen with state documents in the car.
“That would be something outside our control and would be an unforeseen circumstance.”
Whether the information about the complainant was possibly leaked by authorities, Mulamu said this was not likely to have happened.
NPA regional spokesperson Lumka Mahanjana said Ewulu and Molomo on Monday both appeared at the Pretoria Specialised Commercial Crimes Court facing charges of extortion and corruption.
Mahanjana said Ewulu, a Nigerian national, would face an additional charge of being illegal in the country.
The matter was postponed to March 22, for further investigations and formal bail applications.
The two remain behind bars pending the investigation against them.
Last week, in a previous statement the Hawks national head, Lieutenant-General Godfrey Lebeya applauded the arrest of the two suspects.
“The community is reminded that the police services are free and no police officer is allowed to demand a cent from the public in exchange for our services,” Lebeya said.
“It must also be known that anyone who demands payment is not a member of the Hawks or greater SAPS. Our organisation cannot make case dockets disappear and that once the suspect is charged and appears in the court of law, a ruling must be made for the offence committed.”
The public was urged to report such matters to authorities for further investigation.
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