A police task team has been appointed to investigate corruption following an exposé on SABC television on Tuesday night showing policemen harassing prostitutes in Johannesburg.
”We view the allegations in a serious light… at the moment we will be investigating corruption,” said a police spokesperson, senior superintendent Mary Martins-Engelbrecht.
SABC’s Special Assignment programme showed police openly demanding and taking bribes from sex workers and their clients in Oxford Street in Rosebank and in Rosettenville, south of Johannesburg.
The bribes, dubbed ”spot fines”, were as much as R1 000 and up to R30 000 could be made by crooked policemen in one month, Special Assignment said.
According to the sex workers who were filmed, some policemen demanded sex from them and would continuously harass them. Some sex workers reported being assaulted by policemen. At least seven policemen were bribed during the making of the programme.
”As long as they [sex workers] give us enough information to act on we will definitely investigate,” said Martins-Engelbrecht, also urging the women to call Crime-Stop number 08600-10111 to report police harassment and corruption.
She said no one had yet been arrested as the policemen filmed by spy camera in the programme first had to be identified.
Gauteng deputy police commissioner Bushie Engelbrecht, who was shown a tape of the programme, said it was ”embarrassing” to see colleagues in uniform behaving in such a manner. – Sapa