ABOUT a fortnight ago, three police officers - two warrant officers and a constable - appeared briefly in the Muizenberg Magistrate's Court on charges of theft and defeating the ends of justice before being released on bail of R300 each.
They had allegedly stolen dagga that had been confiscated at the scene of a murder in January and then sold it to drug dealers in Ocean View.
Oddly enough, it was these very same dealers who apparently reported the matter to the police. Quite what their motive for doing so was we cannot say. Perhaps they felt their line of work was difficult enough without bent cops giving them a bad name.
But an undercover operation was duly launched by the Western Cape anti-corruption unit and, after a six-week investigation, the men - aged 33, 43 and 47 - were arrested when they reported for duty at the local police station.
At roughly the same time, helicopters with the SA Police Service's national air wing - all very Biggles-like, isn't it? - were winding up a three-week operation to spray dagga plantations in the Eastern Cape with herbicides. More than 500 hectares in the Lusikisiki region had now been poisoned.
As SAPS spokesman Lieutenant-General Solomon Makgale put it, "Drugs have proven to be a very difficult plague to control, not only in South Africa, but throughout the world. These exercises literally nip the dagga problem in the bud."