All SAPS officials who attended Jackson Mthembu’s funeral to be investigated

Police Minister Bheki Cele has announced that SAPS has started an internal process investigating all SOuth African Police Service (SAPS) officers who attended the funeral of the late Minister in Presidency Jackson Mthembu.

This as the SAPS scored an own goal by allowing Mpumalanga Premier Refilwe Mtsweni-Tsipane at the proceedings without a mask.

“What was supposed to actually happen there was that Police should have verbally asked the Premier to wear a mask which failure to do so should have resulted in an arrest,” Cele’s Spokesperson Lirandzu Themba said on Thursday.

Themba said that all officers who were on duty at the funeral had failed to enforce the law.

“As a result, the National Commissioner (Khehla Sithole) has instructed the Provincial Commissioner in Mpumalanga to investigate,” said Themba.

ALSO READ: Does Mpumalanga premier now have a criminal record for violating lockdown regulations?

Under the lockdown regulations, any person who fails to comply with a verbal instruction by a law-enforcement officer to wear a mask commits a criminal offense, and if they are convicted, are liable to a fine or a period of imprisonment not exceeding six months or both

Mtsweni-Tsipane has admitted her guilt for violating lockdown regulations on the compulsory wearing of masks in public.

She has since paid a R1500 fine.

The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) in Mpumalanga on Tuesday rejected Premier Refilwe Mtsweni-Tsipane’s decision to sign a statement of guilt and pay a fine they said they wanted the premier to be prosecuted for violating lockdown regulations, like other South Africans who had been caught not wearing a mask in public.

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