This comes after a video showing a screaming child being taken away by one of the municipal police officers, sparked outrage among residents of Ballito on social media.

In a statement, the municipality says the child in the video was taken away for safety purposes in terms of the Children’s Act after the father’s arrest at a complex.

The municipality says three other children involved in the incident were handed over to their parents without incident.

According to the statement, the man in the video had ran away to avoid arrest.

Some social media users took to Twitter and Facebook to condemn the actions of police after the video was shared on both platforms. They have described police actions as an abuse of power.

Municipality spokesperson Sipho Mkhize says the municipality does not condone any form of abuse against residents. The municipality was appealing for calm and cooperation while investigations continued.

Former finance minister Trevor Manuel has criticised the president, ministers and senior officials for not dealing with brutality by lockdown enforcers.  

Manuel says law enforcers are abusing their power and that they are not fulfilling their purpose which is to help curb the spread of COVID-19.

An urgent internal investigation has found that KwaDukuza Municipal police officers were not manhandling a four-year old child while arresting 11 people for illegally visiting the beach.

Here is the full video. pic.twitter.com/ua6noiCkDP

— Yusuf Abramjee (@Abramjee) May 11, 2020

eNCA/SABC News