[imagesource:adobestock]

CCTV footage has emerged showing a worryingly large group of police officers in Ekurhuleni conducting what they were calling a ‘raid’.

According to the 20 men who stormed the small shop, the raid was in relation to “illicit cigarettes”.

Confused shop-keepers at the LM Cafe in Nigel stood to the side as, let’s be frank, the cops robbed them blind. 152 boxes of cigarettes were confiscated (without official cause) and more than R150 000 in cash was also taken.

The dodgy cops managed to damage two CCTV cameras that were in plain sight but failed to notice the hidden cam in the back office.

Hence, South Africans get to watch the shocking footage below of policemen filling up a plastic bucket, as well as their pockets, with cold hard cash from the store.

The majority of the thieves were cops sporting plain-clothes, but one officer gave away the ruse as the footage shows him, clearly donning his South African Police Service (SAPS) uniform.

There was enough evidence for seven of the men to appear in Nigel magistrate’s court on Monday, and the squad will be facing two counts of theft per person, as well as one count of malicious damage to property each.

When one of the shopkeepers tried to reason with the cops, explaining that he is willing to give up Randelas but needs to hold on to his salary, he received a cold response and had to watch as his earnings were snatched away:

“You know what this one said to me, he said he earns R4,000 and that I can take R2,000. I told him that he is crazy, we are here now and there is a lot of money here,” one of the officers snickered.

At least some of the rotten cops got their comeuppance in court. In 2015 the very same supermarket was robbed, also by officers in plainclothes. While in the 2015 incident, there wasn’t enough evidence to prosecute the government workers, it’s good to know that in 2023, there is at least a proper attempt at holding the robbers accountable.

The video from this week shows the difficult reality that many SAPS members are clearly not interested in protecting the rights of regular South Africans. Nor do they seem to care.

Next time you get robbed, who are you going to call? The South African Robbery Service?

[source:timeslive]