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SAPS Deputy National Commissioner Lieutenant General Bonang Mgwenya will appear before Palm Ridge Magistrates Court on Monday.
The Deputy National Commissioner, Lieutenant General Bonang Mgwenya, the second highest police officer in the country, appeared in court on charges of corruption, fraud, theft and money laundering involving around 200 million rand.
Lt. General Bonang Mgwenya was arrested in a pre-dawn raid on her home in Johannesburg on Monday and appeared in Palm Ridge Magistrates Court. She was released on bail of 20,000 rand.
The main police are being charged along with 14 fellow officers, including their chief, former SAPS Acting National Commissioner Lt. Gen. Khomotso Phahlane.
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Mgwenya was the first woman to hold this senior position in SAPS and until her arrest she was considered a pioneer in the organization.
Just the other day, Mgwenya, in full uniform, represented SAPS and spoke at the funeral of the highly decorated Anti-Gang Unit Section Chief, Lt. Col. Charl Kinnear, in Cape Town on 3 October.
On the dock on Monday, she was dressed in civilian clothes.
Mgwenya received a suspension letter from National Commissioner Khehla Sitole in 2019 on another matter.
He later made statements about why he should keep his main job after an allegation that he had abused his position to speed up his son’s driving license.
In the last matter, other Mgwenya senior policemen will join the bench include Former Gauteng Deliwe de Lange Police Commissioner, Gauteng Deputy Police Commissioner Nombhuruza Lettie Napo, Retired Division Commissioner Lt. Gen. Ramahlapi Johannes Mokwena, Brigadier James Ramajalum, Major General Ravichandran Pillay, Colonel Thomas Dumas Marima and Sergeant Maetapese Joseph Mulaiwa.
Mgwenya has served 33 years in SAPS and joined in 1986, shortly after enrolling in Mathibela High School in Bushbuckridge.
Moving up the ranks, in 2009 he served as COO to then-SAPS National Commissioner Bheki Cele in the Office of the National Commissioner. Cele did not publicize the post or interview any other candidates. Mgwenya earned a million rand a year in the position.
Mgwenya was “reassigned” from Cele’s office to SAPS, where she was appointed deputy national commissioner in 2016, the year Phahlane restructured the senior management within SAPS.
Four years later, many of those promoted are charged with serious criminal charges and defrauding the State and people of South Africa.
Mgwenya and her co-defendant will reappear on November 16. DM
