OWN CORRESPONDENT, Pretoria | Wednesday 9.00pm.
ALMOST half the Alien Investigation Unit in Pretoria has been arrested for taking bribes and sleeping with foreign prostitutes. A senior Home Affairs official has also been arrested, and a further 15 cases are under investigation, SABC3 reports.
The arrests, which include the former acting commander of the unit, Blackie Swart, follow 10 months of work by the Anti-Corruption Unit.
Police in the Alien Investigation Unit are suspected of taking bribes from aliens for temporary residence permits. They are also accused of taking advantage of Asian women brought into the country, often under false pretences, by unscrupulous “immigration borkers” who then force them to work in sex clubs to pay off debt. Having rescued the women from this plight, members of the Alien Investigation Unit are accused of then using the women for their own gratification.
“It is the worst form of corruption,” a senior police investigator told reporters. “It is using a defenceless person. To my mind such people have no place in the police force.”
Six of the accused police and the Home Affairs official were latere released on R1000 bail, while the rest were released on R500 bail.