A corruption scandal engulfing South Africa’s top police brass has taken a new turn, with leaked documents revealing that senior officers accepted “gifts” from a known criminal associate and that a series of cocaine raids were deliberately mishandled. The revelations, sourced from internal police files and whistleblowers within the force, have prompted calls for UK investigators to oversee the probe, given mounting evidence of a cover-up. At the centre of the storm is a Johannesburg-based businessman, Thabo Mokoena, who sources confirm has been a “close personal friend” of several high-ranking officers.
Mokoena, who is under investigation for money laundering, allegedly showered officers with luxury watches, designer clothes, and cash payments totaling over R2 million. In return, documents suggest, the officers tipped him off about upcoming anti-drug operations. One such operation in February 2023, which seized 500kg of cocaine worth R300 million, was botched because a senior commander leaked the raid details to Mokoena.
The commander, who cannot be named for legal reasons, is accused of altering the police log to show a delayed response time, allowing the traffickers to move the drugs. Nine police officers have been suspended pending an internal inquiry, but critics say the investigation is compromised because it is being led by the very department implicated. “We need the Met or the National Crime Agency to come in.
This is a whitewash,” a source inside the Independent Police Investigative Directorate told me. The UK High Commissioner in Pretoria has confirmed that the British government has “noted the request” but has yet to comment on whether it will intervene. Meanwhile, Mokoena’s luxury penthouse in Sandton was raided yesterday, but no arrests were made.
The investigating team said they found only a small quantity of marijuana, which sources say was planted to discredit the inquiry. “This is a pattern. Every time we get close, the evidence disappears,” a detective involved said.
The scandal has also exposed deeper rot: officers accepting ‘gifts’ for promotions, falsifying arrest statistics, and protecting drug dens in exchange for bribes. One whistleblower provided bank statements showing a police captain deposited R150,000 into his account the same day a suspected drug lord walked free. The captain has been suspended.
The National Police Commissioner, General Fannie Masemola, has denied any systemic corruption, calling the allegations “isolated incidents”. But the documents tell a different story. They show that between 2021 and 2023, at least 15 officers received ‘gifts’ from known criminals, and that 40% of drug raids in Gauteng were compromised.
Critics say the UK must demand access to the full police files, and that South Africa’s own oversight body is too weak to act. “This is a national security crisis. The police are no longer the protectors.
They are the predators,” said a former anti-corruption official. The UK Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee has scheduled an emergency session for Monday to discuss whether to impose sanctions on the South African police leadership. The committee’s chair, MP Sarah Jones, said: “We cannot stand by while British taxpayers’ aid money is used to fund a police force that is working for criminals.
” The scandal now threatens to unravel the entire upper echelons of the South African Police Service. Sources confirm that more resignations are expected within days. And I have learned that the UK’s National Crime Agency has sent a covert team to Johannesburg to begin preliminary inquiries – a sign that the British government may already be moving behind the scenes.
Watch this space.
