On Monday evening, 11 May 2026, officers attached to the Sekhukhune Highway Patrol received a tip off that a large consignment of cannabis was headed for Mussina in two Audi A3’s that were parked at the Groblersdal Bus Terminal.
The officers arrived at the terminal and spotted the two vehicles – one red and one black – and attempted to pull them over. The drivers failed to comply, a car chase ensued and eventually both vehicles were stopped by police and searched.
A police statement said that “17 compressed dagga bales” were found in the vehicles and three suspects were arrested – a 36 year old man, a 23 year old woman and a 33 year-old male constable from Carolina Police Station in Mpumalanga province. The cannabis is still in the process of being weighed and the three are all in custody while the docket has been transferred to the Limpopo Provincial Ant-Corruption Unit for further investigation.
Democratic Alliance MPL Marie Helm, and provincial spokesperson for Transport and Safety, has now called on IPID to investigate the case. She says that drug-related crime is on the increase in Limpopo and that alleged SAPS involvement in the Grobersdal bust, was alarming.
“It is concerning that we are losing the war against drugs and faith in SAPS following the arrest of own of their own” she said in a statement on 18 May 2026. “The arrest of a police officer points to institutional rot within SAPS and must be investigated by IPID; the war on drugs demand credible and ethical policing.”
Helm says the last available annual Limpopo SAPS crime statistics reported 6 833 drug-related arrests due to police action, an increase of 24% from the previous year. She the third quarter stats for 2025 showed the situation was getting worse with drug related crime increasing year-on-year by 3.4% percentage points in 12 months from 2 566 to 2 654.
This is the second time in a month that SAPS officers in Carolina have been implicated in dealing in cannabis. Four policemen from that precinct are still awaiting trial after they were allegedly bust trying to sell part of a seized cannabis consignment to a second-hand car dealership last month.
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