Five of the ten police officers arrested in the wake of raids on the selling of counterfeit goods in Johannesburg last week are expected to appear in court on Tuesday morning.
On Monday, all ten officers appeared in Johannesburg Magistrates court where they were formally charged with defeating the ends of justice, theft, and corruption.
So they confiscate these counterfeit goods, and then attempt to resell them back to the hawkers!!! Shocking but not surprising ? #JoburgRaids #JHBRiots #JoburgCBD pic.twitter.com/iafwQy6Zqy
— Maageketla Mohlabe (@MaageMohlabe) August 8, 2019
Among the arrested cops are those who allegedly tried to re-sell some of the seized goods back to the traders. Other police officers were nabbed for allegedly tipping-off the traders about the impending raids.
These two officers from the Tactical Response Team (TRT) also made a brief appearance at the Johannesburg Magistrate’s court. According to the state prosecutor, they are the ones who allegedly informed illegal traders about the operation last week #JoburgRaids #SABCNews pic.twitter.com/l417hVTZRG
— Maageketla Mohlabe (@MaageMohlabe) August 12, 2019
More than 600 illegal traders were also arrested during the raid, some of them undocumented migrants.
The case against five of the police officers was postponed to Tuesday for verification of their addresses, while the other five officers will return to court on Monday next week, for a formal bail application.
They have all been remanded in custody.
The court also made an order that all undocumented foreign nationals who were arrested during the raid be deported back to the countries of origin within 30-days.
These are some of the TEN police officers charged with theft, corruption&defeating the ends of justice. They allegedly gave illegal traders tip-off ahead of #JoburgRaids & attempted to resell confiscated goods. Case postponed to tomorrow&next week for bail application #SABCNews pic.twitter.com/n8oZw09UGw
— Maageketla Mohlabe (@MaageMohlabe) August 12, 2019