Kamogelo Olaitan
An officer in Dalasile village, Engcobo in the Eastern Cape went to the tavern with his friends using the state car, had a good time and later abandoned the van in the veld.
To avoid trouble, the constable went on to report that he was hijacked and robbed while he was on his was to attend to a rape case on 20 August.
Initially, the police seemed happy to believe one of their own. However, upon investigating the reported hijacking at nearby villages, they stumbled across a video on social media.
The clip spelled bad news for the fibbing cop. The video caught him red-handed drinking the night away in a tavern, with the missing van parked safely outside.
However, he was well and truly busted when he was filmed getting out of the back of the missing marked police vehicle with his friends clutching several bottles of liquor.
Eastern Cape SAPS spokesperson Tembinkosi Kinana said the police conducted an investigation according to the information which was provided by the officer.
Kinana said that the 34-year-old cop, who can’t be named, claimed to be a victim and survivor of a tragic incident.
“On the day of the alleged incident, the police officer’s version of events was that he had attended a complaint of a person who was sexually assaulted.”
According to Kinana, the cop told his colleagues that he had just dropped the victim off at the local hospital when he was “approached by unidentified suspects at gunpoint and [they] pulled him out and then drove off in the police vehicle”.
According to the cop who claimed to have escaped unharmed, he managed to call for assistance from the police station and his colleague came to his rescue.
The police vehicle was later discovered abandoned in the nearby Sigidi forest in the morning.
Kinana added that the SAPS management has immediately ordered that disciplinary steps be taken against the constable who has violated the SAPS code of conduct.
Image source: @SAPoliceServic
