Tshwarelo Hunter Mogakane
Pretoria - The fight against corruption among law enforcement officials has resulted in a former traffic officer in Mpumalanga being sentenced to five years in prison for accepting a R100 bribe.
Meshack Masenjwa, 37, was found guilty of corruption in the Middelburg Regional Court and handed the direct imprisonment sentence.
He was nabbed during the 2019 Conny Project, a sting operation led by the priority crimes police unit, the Hawks.
Provincial Hawks spokesperson, Captain Dineo Lucy Sekgotodi, said they received information about a traffic officer who was demanding money from motorists who broke traffic laws around Wonderfontein along the N4 road near Emakhazeni.
They set up an entrapment involving agents who wanted to gather evidence against the officer.
“On the day in question, the agent was driving next to Wonderfontein and was stopped by a traffic official who demanded a bribe of R100 from the agent.
“It was given to him and the transaction was recorded,” said Sekgotodi.
“The matter was brought before court and a warrant of arrest was authorised and executed on June 24, 2019 whereby the accused was arrested and charged for corruption.
“The investigation was carried forward by the Hawks Nelspruit based Serious Corruption Investigation until the accused was sentenced,” said Sekgotodi.
The Hawks have often been criticised for massive arrests of traffic officers involved in corruption. However, in no time, the same officers are seen back at work without any court proceedings unfolding.
In the past two months, eight traffic officials from Mbombela were arrested and charged with corruption and money laundering to the tune of R60 million.
The Hawks arrested three officials in September and five more in October.
“The suspects have been granted bail of R15 000 each.
“The matter was postponed to December 6,” Sekgotodi said.
Pretoria News