National police spokesperson, Vishnu Naidoo, tells OFM News local police, launched their investigation into the matter, after receiving information in the form of video footage of the two JB Marks Municipality traffic officials – identified as 48-year old Rullaine Williams and 50-year old Moses Nche - receiving alcohol from a local bottle store on the afternoon of Thursday, 09 April 2020. 

Following an extensive investigation, the trio including the 45-year old bottle store operator, Nelson Duarte, handed themselves over to police a week later, on Thursday, 16 April, appearing before the Potchefstroom Magistrate’s Court on the same day. 

Naidoo says they were released out on R 1000 bail each and are facing charges of corruption and failing to comply with varying parts of Section 11 in the National Disaster Management Act. Duarte is also alleged to have been illegally selling alcohol to members of the public.

JB Marks Municipality spokesperson, Willy Maphosa, corroborates the version of events as explained by police, further adding the trio have been ordered to reappear before the Potchefstroom Magistrate’s Court on the 7th of May 2020. 

Maphosa says the JB Marks Municipality which includes Potchefstroom and Ventersdorp is cooperating with police and further caution all residents to heed and obey the lockdown regulations. The municipality will launch its own internal investigation into the incident.

Word of the incident comes as President Cyril Ramaphosa has rejected the calls to unban alcohol by the Gauteng Liquor Forum. The Forum which threatened legal action, should Ramaphosa not lift the ban on the sale of alcohol, reportedly represents 20 000 taverns and shebeen owners in Gauteng. 

Ramaphosa’s seven page response explains that alcohol is being seen as a deterrent to government’s efforts to curb the outbreak of the Coronavirus, adding “the sale and consumption of alcohol also has proven links to an increase in violent crime, motor vehicle accidents, medical emergencies and results in full emergency rooms and hospitals. 

In the face of a pandemic such as Covid-19, the experience of the rest of the world has shown us that hospitals need to be prepared to receive and treat vast numbers of covid-19 patients and to quarantine them from non-infected patients”.

OFM News