Cele: 253 cops have Covid-19, while ‘Mohammed’ turns out not to have been the prophet

Minister of Police Bheki Cele has attempted to convince the public that when one of his officers referred to “Muhammad” while raiding an Islamic place of worship last month, he wasn’t referring to the Prophet Muhammad, but just some regular guy named Mohammed.

Cele said on Friday that an internal investigation had cleared the SAPS officer of blasphemy after he could be heard in a video asking Muslim worshippers if Muhammad was bigger than President Cyril Ramaphosa during a raid.

Cele was answering questions and providing feedback on police work in a video call to Parliament on Friday.

He further revealed that 253 police officers have thus far tested positive for Covid-19. He said 178 of them were in the Western Cape, 13 in the Eastern Cape, 12 in Gauteng and eight in KwaZulu-Natal.

In the blasphemy matter, a tweeted comment from News24 reported that the minister claimed the officer was actually referring to a person named Mohammed instead of the prophet.

A number of responses, however, expressed a bit of scepticism about the results of that investigation.

However, others said the explanation was reasonable since there apparently was someone named Mohammed there at the time.

In a video that circulated on social media, Muslims were seen praying ahead of Ramadan, with no one observing any social distancing measures.

Since religious gatherings have been outlawed during the lockdown, 17 men were arrested at a building in Pretoria West on 25 April where they had been found praying, allegedly in breach of lockdown regulations and they were released on bail on the following day on Saturday.

SAPS ordered an investigation into the matter.

Police spokesperson Brigadier Vishnu Naidoo reportedly said the utterances were both unfortunate and unacceptable and that police management had ordered the male officer responsible to be held to account.

Cele also apologised to the Muslim community for the actions of the officers while the Council of Muslim Theologians Jamiatul Ulama called for the Human Rights Commission and Independent Police Investigative Directorate (Ipid) to investigate the matter, saying they were left “appalled”.

Jamiatul Ulama secretary-general EI Bham said in a statement they accepted the officers had had a right to enforce the law since religious gatherings were banned, but they found the “abusive and heavy-handed nature of the officers … unacceptable”.

The officers were heard chastising the group, and informing them they were all under arrest. One man who appeared to explain something in mitigation was told, “You are an adult,” along with being told that they were blatantly ignoring a measure decided on by the president of the country.

“You mean the president is crazy?” the police asked.

One of the officers could then be heard challenging the worshippers by asking: “Are you bigger than the president? Heh? Or Muhammad is bigger than the president?”

Meanwhile, lawyers acting for Muslim leaders who want mosques reopened are heading to the Constitutional Court to ease restrictions on religious gatherings.

Last week, Judge Brenda Neukircher of the High Court in Pretoria dismissed their application.

“My clients have instructed me to urgently apply for leave to appeal directly to the Constitutional Court,” said Zehir Omar, who represents the As-Saadiqeen Islamic Centre, with Mohammed Bin Hassim Mohamed and Anas Mohammed Chotia.

CONTINUE READING: Muslim leaders to ask ConCourt to rule on mosques opening.

(Compiled by Molefe Seeletsa)

For more news your way, download The Citizen’s app for iOS and Android.