A bribery and corruption syndicate linked to the Palm Ridge Magistrate’s Court has finally been exposed and, so far this week, attorney Justice Rafedile has been struck off the roll for criminal activity.

An investigation by The Star had previously exposed a high-level ring through which police would arrest innocent citizens and then irregularly process them at the police station, usually by using fake charge sheets.

The accused were then taken to Palm Ridge Magistrate’s Court, where on the first or second appearance the prosecutor would ‘strike a deal’ with the attorney that the accused, usually a wealthy business person, should pay a hefty amount for the charges to be dropped.

The funds then got shared between the police, prosecutor and attorney and the case was later dropped.

The accused, however, would not know that the attorney was in cahoots with the prosecutor.

Often, members of the SAPS would call a prosecutor to tell them that they were about to pounce on an eminent individual. The police would then charge the person, who was surrendered to the courts the next day.

Unknown to the accused, the prosecutor would put up a fight for them to remain in custody. The accused’s lawyer would then intervene, giving the impression that the case against the accused was very strong but required more funds to ‘mediate’ the case.

After the accused paid the said amount to his lawyer, the prosecutor would suddenly be lenient and the accused would get let off.

The accused paid between R50 000 and R200 000, depending on their wealth status.

All this was according to a source at the court who listed seven such cases.

‘Sometimes the person is innocent. They just keep the case on the roll for him to pay up. This is what happened at Palm Ridge,’ the source said.

Full report in The Star