Two former Welkom police sergeants, Boipelo Joseph Mmolawa (44) and Johannes Jakob Jacobs (42), and three other people, who are also charged with other crimes, appeared in the Bothaville Regional Court on charges of extortion of R32 000.
Their appearance on 4 November stems from an incident in February when four men and a woman allegedly blackmailed a nurse and his wife at their home in Bothaville.
The five allegedly posed as members of the Hawks and told the couple that were engaged in a criminal investigation.
The couple paid them the R32 000, but reported the incident to the police.
The matter was investigated by the police’s provincial unit for organized crime, and Jacobs and Mmolawa were arrested.
After their arrests Jacobs himself resigned from the police and Mmolawa was fired by the police.
The police started a search for the other three suspects and a photo of one of them was distributed in the media last week.
Thokoa Kingsley Mafere (44) was earlier released on parole after serving a prison sentence for an armed robbery when he had shot at the police during that robbery.
“Mafere was arrested in prison this week after someone saw the photo of him in the media and the police were informed that he was already in custody,” says Capt. Stephen Thakeng, media liaison officer for the police in Lejweleputswa.
“He is back in prison to serve the rest of his sentence and to stand trial on the new charges related to the shooting incident in Welkom,” says Thakeng.
The other two, whose names have not yet been released, were also arrested earlier by the police in connection with other alleged crimes.
Thakeng says the woman was involved in another extortion case Thabong involving R60 000.
This woman and other suspects were already arrested earlier this year in connection with the incident in Thabong.
The fifth suspect was arrested in Kroonstad after he and two other men were caught in possession of illegal firearms and police handcuffs.
