Staff Reporter
Five police officers from Phuthaditjhaba in the Free State are expected to appear in court soon after they were arrested over the weekend for drinking while enforcing the national lockdown put in place by the government to help fight the spread of COVID-19.
A police reservist from the town was also nabbed together with them.
Community members are said to have tipped the police on Saturday afternoon that five officers believed to be from Namahadi police station were busy consuming alcohol at a nearby tavern while on duty.
The tavern, by law, was supposed to be closed in line with the government’s ban on the sale of alcohol during the lockdown.
Another police team was immediately dispatched but the officers are said to have escaped, leaving behind the 44-year-old owner of the tavern who was immediately arrested.
All liquor was seized and the business was closed.
Four of the officers were arrested when they reported for duty on Sunday.
The fifth one booked off sick but was arrested at her home as well as the police reservist.
National police spokesperson Brigadier Vishnu Naidoo has told journalists the officers will face charges of drinking while on duty and trying to cover it up by disappearing from the crime scene.
“The police officers will be charged with defeating the ends of justice and failing to enforce and adhere to the National Disaster Management Regulations,” he said.
Naidoo said it was regrettable a handful of South African Police Service (SAPS) officers were bent on tarnishing the good work being done by others during the lockdown.
“While the greater majority of SAPS members have been hard at work to flatten the (COVID-19) curve . . . some members (are) 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,” he said.
The tavern owner will be charged for violating regulations on the prohibition of the sale of liquor during the lockdown.
It remains unclear why the police officers could not be pursued and arrested on the same day or when they knocked off as they are usually expected to officially hand over the shift to their colleagues at the police station.
