FAKE NEWS: Police debunk post claiming they confiscated food parcels from church
The police say the church in question has no knowledge of the alleged incident.
Photo for illustration. Food parcels from Africa Medalion Group to be delivered to families in Johannesburg, 3 April 2020. Photo for illustration. Picture: Nigel Sibanda
The South African Police Service (SAPS) has said that a social media post alleging that its members confiscated 200 food parcels that a church in Pretoria wanted to distribute at a Bonaccord squatter close to the city is “false and malicious”.
The police said the church had no knowledge of the incident and that the claims had been investigated and were found to be “baseless, false and malicious”.
RT #sapsHQ Beware of #FakeNews A post on social media claiming that police confiscated 200 food parcels that church wanted to hand out at a Bonaccord squatter camp near Pretoria, is FAKE NEWS. The mentioned church has no knowledge of such an incident. MEhttps://t.co/dXMfoAgGcN pic.twitter.com/IYliSIMKOx
— SA Police Service 🇿🇦 (@SAPoliceService) May 6, 2020
According to the gazetted regulations aimed at containing the spread of Covid-19, spreading fake news about Covid-19 could land you in jail for six months or result in a fine.
The regulations were gazetted after the government declared a national state of disaster amid the Covid-19 virus outbreak.
(Compiled by Makhosandile Zulu)
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