When former TV personality Zanele Mbokazi received a call from two Rosebank detectives demanding R10 000 to stop them from investigating her, she obliged.
She flew from Durban and arranged to meet the policeman and policewoman at the Campus Square shopping centre in Melville at 9pm on Sunday to make the payment.
But when she handed over the bag of money to the two, their colleagues from the Hawks were right there to take the money and arrest the sergeant and the lieutenant.
The officers, aged 35 and 42, now face charges of bribery and corruption. They were expected to appear in the Johannesburg Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday.
On Monday night, Mbokazi said she had been advised not to talk to the media.
Speaking from her Durban office, where she runs events company Mirror PR, she said: “I can confirm that the police officers had requested for me to give them money, and a sting was set up with the Organised Crime Unit of the police and the Hawks.”
Mbokazi, who is the founder of the Crown Gospel Awards, was the face of the SABC1 show Gospel Gold.
She was also a household name on radio station UkhoziFM, where she was known as MaZet-zet for her talkshows and other programmes with the youth.
Police spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Tshisikhawe Ndou said on Monday the two officers had allegedly threatened Mbokazi by saying they had “damning criminal evidence against her”.
“They ordered her to pay them R10 000 for them not to go ahead with the investigation,” explained Ndou.
He said that when Mbokazi received the call, she co-operated, but phoned the police, and a trap was set.
“Members of the Hawks observed the meeting, but pounced when the two suspects left the restaurant and still had the money in their possession,” Ndou said.
According to the SA Police Act, once an officer was arrested, he or she was suspended until released on bail. - The Star