Cops 'not worthy of uniform'

A police officer found guilty of corruption, prostitution and public indecency has been described as an "embarrassment to the police".

Constable Alva Kgomo, 33, was convicted in the Alexandra Magistrate's Court last week after she was caught on CCTV footage giving a drunk driver a sexual favour in May last year.

The footage also showed Kgomo's colleague, Sergeant Ernst Dlomo, 41, accepting a bribe from the driver.

Dlomo faced the same charges as Kgomo, but was only found guilty of corruption.

The pair - from the Boksburg North crime prevention unit - were sentenced to five years behind bars.

Both pleaded not guilty, but CCTV footage shown to the court during the trial told a different story.

On the footage BMW driver Thomas Haasbroek is seen drawing money from an ATM in the parking lot at East Rand Mall in Boksburg and handing it to Dlomo.

Later the footage shows Kgomo giving Haasbroek a "hand job" outside the police vehicle. Kgomo and Dlomo claimed in court that they were assisting Haasbroek, who needed help getting to an ATM because he did not have his glasses with him.

Dlomo said that the footage showed something changing hands, but these were bank receipts, not money. Kgomo denied giving the man a sexual favour, saying she was playing with her jacket when Haasbroek was standing close to her with his penis exposed.

Haasbroek, a businessman in his 50s, turned state witness and told the court that he paid the officers a R550 bribe because he had been caught driving drunk.

In a scathing judgment, magistrate Syta Prinsloo said the two officers were "not worthy of wearing the [police] uniform".