From cop to car washer

Former Crime Intelligence Unit clerk Zukasani Mtakati was fined R10 000 for bribery

FROM a promising career in the police Crime Intelligence Unit to washing cars – that’s the price that a father of two small children had to pay for requesting a bribe for private information. Former clerk Zukasani Mtakati, 32, was fined R10 000 or 10 months in jail.

He was also sentenced to four years in jail, conditionally suspended for five, when he pleaded guilty in the Bellville Specialised Commercial Crimes Court yesterday, for requesting a R3 000 bribe for private information from the CIU’s computers.

He appeared before magistrate Sabrina Sonnenberg, who agreed with prosecutor Xolile Jonas that the suspended prison sentence would make him “think twice” if ever temptation were placed before him again.

The suspended jail sentence had to hang over his head like the proverbial Sword of Damocles, the magistrate said.

The prosecutor reminded the court that crime intelligence was crucial in the fight against crime and was a vital tool in police investigations. Mtakati had abused his position of trust, the prosecutor said.

The court heard that the CIU had information that Mtakati was selling information obtained from the unit’s computers and a police under-cover operation was authorised.

Mtakati was given an agent’s cellphone number, on the pretence that the agent wanted someone’s profile.

Mtakati called the agent to satisfy himself that he was talking to the correct person, then arranged to meet the agent at the Cape Gate Shopping Centre in Brackenfell.

Prior to the meeting, the agent was given R10 000 with which to pay Mtakati for the information.

As it happened, Mtakati met the agent as planned, but instead of exchanging the information for the bribe, he changed his mind and “walked away”.

The magistrate commended Mtakati for walking away and said he had “done the honourable thing”.

Unfortunately, it was too late, as his very arrangement to meet the agent in the first instance, was sufficient for a conviction on a charge of corruption, she said.

She said he had been prepared to sell private information for a bribe and had pleaded guilty, but he in fact had no option but to plead guilty because he had been trapped.

The magistrate said Mtakati had brought shame and disgrace on his wife and small children, but that the punishment had to be fair, and not a “show of power”.

The court had to bring home to him that crime did not pay, she said.

Mtakati had to pay half the fine immediately and at the request of defence attorney Ayanda Mqala the other half by April 18. – ANA

MTAKATI MET THE AGENT, BUT INSTEAD OF EXCHANGING THE INFORMATION, HE ‘WALKED AWAY’