The rot runs deep. In a Johannesburg courtroom this morning, a former high-ranking police official pleaded guilty to charges of corruption, bribery, and money laundering. The official, who cannot be named due to a court order, admitted to taking bribes from private security firms in exchange for police protection and inside information.
Sources confirm the payments totalled over R12 million, channelled through shell companies registered in the Cayman Islands. The plea deal, struck in secret last week, implicates at least two other senior officers still in service. Uncovered documents from a 2022 forensic audit show a pattern of cash payments disguised as 'consulting fees'.
The scandal, first exposed by this newspaper in 2019, has now reached the highest levels of the South African Police Service. One source close to the investigation described the plea as 'the first crack in a dam that is about to break'.
