Allegedly beaten, wrongly arrested, jailed, freed and only then asked for a bribe

Beaten, arrested, released on bail and then asked for a bribe regarding a case that had already been withdrawn.

Mhlengi Nxumalo, 23, from Ga-Rankuwa, was allegedly beaten by provincial traffic officers, arrested for driving under the influence without touching the steering wheel and then had to pay a bribe to a detective to make the case go away after the National Prosecuting Authority had already provisionally withdrawn the case against him.

Nxumalo, who works as a close protection officer, has had a long year.

“It has been very traumatic and tough. Blow after blow after blow. I am still feeling the blow when the next one lands,” Nxumalo told TimesLIVE Premium last week. 

“On April 6 this year I was visiting friends in Bronkhorstspruit. Yes, I had a few drinks, but I did nothing wrong. At one point, we decided to go to Pretoria,” Nxumalo told TimesLIVE Premium.

This is where the trouble started.

“We hit a pothole outside Bronkhorstspruit, almost at the Diamond Hill toll gate and our rear right hand tyre burst.”

When they opened the boot they realised they did not have a wheel spanner.

“My two friends decided to hike back to town and fetch a wheel spanner. I sat in the passenger seat at the front and decided to take a nap,” Nxumalo said.

“I was woken up by a traffic officer tapping on my window. It was one guy speaking Zulu, one spoke Tswana and one Afrikaans.”

According to Nxumalo the officers were aggressive towards him off the bat.

“They ordered me out and I at first questioned the order. I was not driving the car, I was just sitting in it. Their attitude changed entirely when they saw I had a firearm licencee on me. They took my pistol and the police still have it today.”

He claims he was assaulted by the officers.

“They threw me on the ground and I was hit also. The traffic officers then gave me a breathalyser and when I failed that they said we had to go to the hospital for blood tests,” Nxumalo said on Wednesday.

“I bled enough that one of the nurses at the hospital asked me if she could check me out, but I was scared so I said no.”

He was arrested and booked into the cells.

“I stayed in that jail for two weeks until I was released on bail.”

The case against Nxumalo — drinking and driving and reckless driving — has since been provisionally withdrawn.

“At the start of this December a detective called me from a police phone. He said my docket was still open, but the evidence was light enough that he could make it go away if I paid a fine of R5,000.”

He did not have enough money.

“I talked him down to R3,000. He gave me his Capitec details and I made the payment.”

Since then, Nxumalo has been to the police on several occasions.

“I wanted to make a case against these officers — the traffic cops and the bribe detective — and I want my pistol that they confiscated. They beat me, arrested me for no reason and another one wanted a bribe. I want justice.

“I went to Sunnyside police and the Bronkhorstspruit police. They did not want to help me because my complaint was against cops,” Nxumalo said.

Nxumalo was just about to give up hope when he ran into Marius Cloete, the operational director of the nonprofit organisation Drug Enforcement Agency.

Cloete told TimesLIVE Premium: “We helped him get his evidence together. We checked the number that was used to ask for the bribe — it was a police phone. I then personally went to the Bronkhorstspruit police, but when the officer said the allegations against a local detective would be investigated by local detectives, I realised this was not going to work and I left.”

He took Nxumalo to Pretoria Central police station.

“Their system was down, but this time we managed to open a case.”

Col Mavela Masondo, Gauteng police spokesperson, confirmed the opening of the case. “This case will be sent to the SAPS anti-corruption unit for further investigation,” Masondo said.

Spokesperson for the Gauteng Provincial Traffic Police, Sello Maremane, said that “with more than 1.000 officers on the road” they needed more information if they were to conduct a thorough investigation.