PRETORIA – A police officer in the Ekurhuleni Metro Police Department (EMPD) and an accomplice were arrested minutes after hijacking a truck on the N12 highway in Boksburg.
The EMPD said the duo was caught a few meters from the scene of the hijacking.
“The men had allegedly just hijacked a truck carrying surgical masks when the police pounced. When the suspects saw the police they sped off in a white VW Polo which was later involved in an accident. They were arrested and it was later discovered that one of them was an EMPD officer and the getaway car also belonged to the metro police,” the EMPD said in a statement.
The hijacked truck, with its consignment, was recovered on the N12. Four other suspects fled the scene. Police recovered a state firearm and an illegal firearm on the scene.
The Ekurhuleni municipal council's member of the mayoral committee for community safety Frans Moko said the law must take its course and condemned acts of crime by EMPD officers.
"We cannot harbour criminals in a law enforcement structure. We remain resolute in flushing thugs out of the service,” said Moko.
"Our people need policemen and women who uphold the law to protect them and ensure law and order in the city.”
The suspects are scheduled to appear in court soon.
Last October, the South African Police Service in Gauteng arrested three truck hijackers, three illegal dental surgery practitioners, three police officers, and seized 14 unlicensed firearms in a blitz.
At the time, police spokesperson Colonel Lungelo Dlamini said a SAPS constable faced perjury charges after he had reported a case of attempted murder while he was allegedly wounded in the leg during a scuffle with a victim of a hijacking.
Initially, the police constable claimed he had been shot when suspects tried to hijack him. Later, he was identified at the hospital as one of the suspects who had hijacked a Toyota minibus in Mamelodi. He was arrested at the Pholosong Hospital where he had booked himself in for treatment. He was off-duty at the time of the incident.
Two other policemen from Randfontein were arrested for stealing cement and assaulting a security guard at Affri-Village after allegedly entering the business premises while on duty.