A TESTING officer for the South African Bureau of Standards in Pretoria has learnt the hard way that crime does not pay when he was arrested for allegedly taking a bribe in Limpopo.
Tshepo Mnisi appeared in the Polokwane Magistrate's Court on Wednesday on corruption charges. He was granted bail of R1000 and his case was postponed to February 15.
Mnisi, 32, was allegedly caught red-handed accepting a bribe from a Polokwane businessman.
Lieutenant-Colonel Mohale Ramatseba said Mnisi had demanded R15000 from the man who wanted to be issued with an SABS test report certificate. The businessman allegedly wanted the certificate to certify that chairs fitted into a truck converted for game viewing complied with the SABS.
"Preliminary investigations revealed that Mnisi had contacted the businessman, notifying him that his application had failed but that if he was paid R15000 he would issue the certificate," Ramatseba said.
He said the businessman then notified police and a trap was set up with the help of members of the Hawks on Friday last week.
"Mnisi was arrested shortly after he was paid R12000 by the businessman. The compliance certificate and three cellphones were also confiscated from him," Ramatseba said.
He said they were probing if Mnisi was involved in other scams. "At the same time we want to applaud the businessman for taking a stance against corruption by reporting the incident. We believe we would root out corruption completely if we had honest people like the businessman," he said.
SABS officer bust for corruption out on bail
A TESTING officer for the South African Bureau of Standards in Pretoria has learnt the hard way that crime does not pay when he was arrested for allegedly taking a bribe in Limpopo.
Tshepo Mnisi appeared in the Polokwane Magistrate's Court on Wednesday on corruption charges. He was granted bail of R1000 and his case was postponed to February 15.
Mnisi, 32, was allegedly caught red-handed accepting a bribe from a Polokwane businessman.
Lieutenant-Colonel Mohale Ramatseba said Mnisi had demanded R15000 from the man who wanted to be issued with an SABS test report certificate. The businessman allegedly wanted the certificate to certify that chairs fitted into a truck converted for game viewing complied with the SABS.
"Preliminary investigations revealed that Mnisi had contacted the businessman, notifying him that his application had failed but that if he was paid R15000 he would issue the certificate," Ramatseba said.
He said the businessman then notified police and a trap was set up with the help of members of the Hawks on Friday last week.
"Mnisi was arrested shortly after he was paid R12000 by the businessman. The compliance certificate and three cellphones were also confiscated from him," Ramatseba said.
He said they were probing if Mnisi was involved in other scams. "At the same time we want to applaud the businessman for taking a stance against corruption by reporting the incident. We believe we would root out corruption completely if we had honest people like the businessman," he said.
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