Twelve members of the South African Police Service (SAPS) were arrested over the weekend for violating the country’s coronavirus quarantine mandates, South Africa’s News24 reported on Monday.
The policemen allegedly violated South Africa’s National Disaster Management Regulations, enacted as part of a five-week lockdown announced on March 27 to curb the spread of the Chinese coronavirus in the country. The officers were also charged with corruption. The arrests occurred over three separate incidents across the country, according to national police spokesman Brigadier Vishnu Naidoo.
In the first incident on Saturday, five SAPS officers were arrested for allegedly drinking alcohol at a local bar in Phuthaditjhaba in South Africa’s Free State province. Photos of the policemen drinking in the bar, and their subsequent arrest, circulated throughout South African social media over the weekend. Images of the officers being apprehended show some of them lying on the floor, face down, with their hands cuffed behind their backs.
“While the greater majority of SAPS members have been hard at work to flatten the curve of the spread of the Covid-19 virus [Chinese coronavirus], there have been some members disregarding the regulations as well as committing some heinous crimes, thus bringing into disrepute both the SAPS as well as the good work its members are doing,” Naidoo said on Monday, as reported by News24.
The bar’s owner was also arrested on Saturday for violating regulations on the prohibition of the sale of liquor during the lockdown. All liquor was seized and authorities shut down the bar.
“The police officials will be charged with defeating the ends of justice and failing to enforce and adhere to the National Disaster Management Regulations,” Naidoo added.
In the second incident, also on Saturday, six officers connected to police stations in Pretoria, South Africa’s administrative capital, were arrested for stealing more than R30,000 [$1,596] from civilians caught in a roadblock, set up to limit people’s movement during the lockdown.
The officers reportedly first demanded a bribe of R100 [$5] after realizing that the driver of a car and two passengers lacked the required documentation to pass through the checkpoint, according to Naido. The officers allegedly stole the money later, while conducting a search of the vehicle at the roadblock. All six police officers were found in possession of the stolen money and arrested; they are being detained at a local Pretoria police station.
In the third incident, police detained one of their own officers after he allegedly hosted a gathering at the police barracks in Soshanguve, Tshwane, about 18 miles north of Pretoria.
At press time on Monday, South Africa had reported 3,300 infections and 58 deaths from the Chinese coronavirus.
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