Everson Luhanga
People posing as police officers are victimising foreign nationals in the Johannesburg city centre.
Police arrested two men and two women on Sunday – but there are many more.
The fake cops are equipped with police equipment, including handcuffs. They walk street by street, demanding documents from people they suspect to be foreigners.
They terrorise foreigners, demanding passports or IDs. If their victims don’t produce them, they demand money.
And if the victims don’t have money, the fake cops threaten them with deportation and tell them they will be taken to a police station.
But the bogus cops don’t take their victims to the police. Some end up kidnapped, with money demanded from their families.
Police spokesperson Captain Xoli Mbele said the four people arrested on Sunday were not the first picked up for impersonating police. They have even found suspects driving cars with blue lights fitted.
Captain Mbele said that on Sunday “police were busy with their routine crime prevention duties when they saw suspicious people busy harassing the community.
“They were targeting foreign nationals demanding passports from them. Police intercepted them and found them in possession of an appointment certificate and handcuffs.”
He said SAPS members, together with the JMPD, arrested the four suspects, aged between 35 and 47.
Malawian Chimwemwe Zimba told Scrolla.Africa he has been a victim of fake police. “I had an awful encounter with three of these bogus cops in Joburg CBD. They were wearing the police yellow reflector vests on them and demanded I produce my passport.
“One of them, a lady, grabbed me from the back. She threatened to deport me back home to Malawi. Surprisingly, when a passing police van drove towards us, they all vanished without goodbyes.”
Another foreign national, Ace Weed, said he has paid bogus cops at least twice after they kidnapped him and demanded his passport and money.
Captain Mbele said the suspects will appear in court on Tuesday May 17.
