/ 16 November 1999

TOP COP CLEARED OF MISUSING VEHICLE

MPUMALANGA Lowveld Police Commissioner Joseph Gaobepe has been cleared of charges of misusing a police vehicle, by having a sheep collected for a private party he was giving. Senior Superintendent Sally de Beer, in the office of National Police Commissioner George Fivaz, announced the decision on Tuesday. Gaobepe is now free to take up promotion as Free State Commissioner. The posting was delayed two weeks ago, while police investigated the allegations against Gaobepe. Gaobepe was alleged to have ordered the Lowveld area’s communications head, Captain Harry Shabangu, to drive over 400km from Nelspruit to Elukwatini, near Badplaas, to buy a sheep. Fivaz ordered the probe. During the investigation it emerged that Shabangu had apparently also, during the trip to Elukwatini, collected pamphlets in Badplaas that he needed to distribute for official purposes.