Cops in court for corruption and drug dealing

One involved Denwin Jantjies,32, who was stationed in Maitland and is charged with corruption involving R4,000.

The other case involves Donovan Pope, of the Public Order Policing Unit, and Craig Jodamus, of the Grassy Park police station.

Both Pope and Jodamus are charged with dealing in drugs, while Pope alone faces a charge of corruption as well.

They appeared in the Specialised Commercial Crime Court in Bellville before magistrate Sabrina Sonnenberg.

Jantjies is expected to plead on August 3, while Pope and Jodamus go on trial on August 10.

According to the Jantjies charge sheet, drug suspect Siyasonga Jacob was arrested in August 2014, by law enforcement officials, for the alleged possession of drugs.

Jacob’s companion, Mandlakyise Mathe, had R7,960 on his person, and was also arrested, as was Jacob’s second companion, Siyabulela Mbengashe.

The drug case was allocated to Jantjies, who consulted the station commander about the fact that neither Mathe nor Mbengashe had been in possession of drugs at the time of their arrest.

Janties was instructed to take statements from both men, and to then release them from custody and refund Mathe his money.

The prosecutor, senior State advocate Derek Vogel alleges that, instead of merely carrying out the commander’s instructions, Jantjies demanded R2,000 from each to secure their release.

It is alleged that Jantjies in fact took the R4,000 for himself, from the R7,960, before refunding Mathe the R3,960 balance.

The prosecutor alleges that the R4,000 that Jantjies kept for himself constituted an unlawful gratification, in contravention of his duty to uphold and enforce the law, without any payment in addition to his monthly salary.

Jantjies is out on R1,500 bail, and is represented by defence attorney, Zaheer Badrudeen.

The Pope and Jodamus charge sheet tells of Pope’s involvement some three years ago in police action to combat gangsterism and drug abuse, known at the time as Operation Combat.

Pope was the driver of a police patrol vehicle, and he and three colleagues were assigned to manage the operation in the Steenberg and Lavender Hill areas.

Jodamus joined them at a petrol filling station, and led them to a house where dagga plants were being grown in a wendy house in the backyard.

They confiscated 20 dagga plants and arrested a suspect living in the house.

The Prosecutor, senior State advocate Simon Leope, alleges that they stopped on their way to a police station, when the suspect was released after giving an unspecified amount of money to Pope, who shared it with his three colleagues.

The confiscated dagga plants were loaded into a private vehicle driven by Jodamus, but were not booked in at the police station as exhibits, as they should have been.

According to the charge sheet, Pope and Jodamus both face prescribed minimum prison sentences of 15 years, if found guilty of dealing in drugs.