Name and shame: Two cops arrested for rhino horn deals
Four accomplices, of which two are police officers, were arrested besides the reported Roodepoort captain in connection with selling rhino horn.
The group of five which seems to have been led by Roodepoort captain Mandla Khumalo, 42, of the West Rand Crime Intelligence unit, were arrested at Irene Mall, south of Pretoria, on Tuesday 24 February.
This after the Record on Friday (27 February) reported that a captain at the Roodepoort Police Station was arrested in connection with rhino horn deals. During a joined sting operation by the Saps Crime Intelligence task team and the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (Hawks) in which officials posed as buyers, the ring was caught and arrested. The police found rhino horn behind one of the seats in their vehicle to the value of R500 000.
Presumably two of the suspects were police members belonging to the West Rand Dog Unit and Honeydew Crime Intelligence Gathering respectively.
Warrant Officer Mothupi, who in the West Rand Dog Unit was the handler of a sniffer dog trained to detect rhino horn and his accomplice Warrant Officer Khumalo of the Honeydew Crime Intelligence Gathering appeared in the Pretoria Magistrate’s Court recently and were granted bail of R15 000 each.
Captain Khumalo and his other accomplices Ntsikagomzi Saliwa, 30, and Ethelbert Radebe, 42, appeared in the Pretoria Magistrate’s Court on the same day (Friday 27 February) where they were also granted R15 000 bail each.
Photos and names of warrant officers Khumalo and Mothupi and names of Captain Khumalo, Saliwa and Radebe were made public on the official Sapsfacebook page. The Record attempted to reach Lieutenant General Solomon Magale, head of the police’s corporate communication at the National Commissioner’s Office for further information multiple times without success.
