Pretoria - Two Tshwane Metro Police officers accused of robbing a motorist will spend another week behind bars before applying for bail next Monday.
The officers, accused of robbing a Durban man of more than R500 000 at gunpoint last Tuesday, appeared briefly in the Hammanskraal Magistrate’s Court on Monday on charges of corruption and armed robbery.
Fahim Essack was travelling to Durban from Beit Bridge after a business trip with R1 million in cash in the boot of his car, when he was pulled over by two sergeants on the N1 highway.
Essack said the customers of his rice business had paid him in cash.
Just before 10pm, officers in an unmarked police BMW caught Essack doing 169km/h and searched his car.
When the officers found the cash in the boot of the car, they said he was to be taken in for investigation by the money laundering unit.
One officer drove Essack’s car while the other followed in the police vehicle.
After several minutes, both vehicles pulled over and the officers said they would be counting the money in Essack’s car.
He allegedly confronted one officer and was told they would take half the money.
He claimed when he told the officers not to be “ridiculous”, the officer cocked his gun and threatened him.
Essack said: “The officer takes out a gun and says: ‘Shut the f***k up. Do what we asked you, otherwise we’ll shoot you…”
Essack said he handed over more than R500 000 and later opened a docket with the SAPS.
Two junior officers, aged 28 and 30, were arrested in their uniforms late on Friday afternoon at the Metro Police headquarters on WF Nkomo (Church) Street.
The officers will soon receive letters of intention to suspend.
On Monday, the Pretoria News reported tracking data from the BMW showed the officers left the scene of the robbery at 236km/h.
The data showed the car was parked at the side of the N1 just after 9pm on Tuesday and then quickly reached a speed of 184km/h, presumably when Essack was being chased.
Just before 10pm, the police vehicle pulled over near Hammanskraal and remained there for eight minutes.
The system then shows the car doing a U-turn and speeding to the Pretoria CBD at 192km/h before parking off Boom Street.
Pretoria News