Bushbuckridge – Forty-seven-year-old court interpreter Timothy Sibuyi on Monday landed in the dock accused of soliciting a bribe from the brother of a rape suspect.
Allegations were that sometime in November 2022 Sibuyi, an interpreter in the Mhala Regional Court, just outside Bushuckridge, offered to assist the rape accused to secure the services of a lawyer if his brother paid him R2 500.
Desperate to help his rape-accused brother, the complainant says he deposited the money into Sibuyi’s Capitec bank account.
The complainant, however, reported the matter to the police.
When Sibuyi became aware that a police complaint had been made against him, he gave back R2 000 to the complaint and promised to settle the balance of R500 later.
On Monday, court attendees were shocked to see the well-known bespectacled interpreter inside the dock as the accused in court.
The matter was postponed to next month, on 16 October 2023, and Sibuyi was released on R5 000 bail.
Hawks Mpumalanga Spokesperson Captain Dineo Sekgotodi said investigations into the complaint led to Sibuyi’s arrest.
Narrating events leading to Sibuyi’s arrest, Captain Sekgotodi said: “He invited a brother of the accused person who was arrested for a rape case into his office at the magistrate’s court”.
“He (Sibuyi) told him that since his brother was not legally represented by a Legal Aid attorney he could arrange a representative for him, but had to pay gratification.”
Sekgotodi added: “The money was then raised by the family and deposited into his bank account.”
