State drops case against 4 Ballito surfers, but jury remains out on 11 Chaka’s Rock lockdown violators
Afriforum spokesperson Natasha Venter said they believed the charges should not be reinstated.
While the 11 Chaka’s Rock residents arrested for violating lockdown level 4 regulations after allegedly visiting the beach on May 10 are still waiting to hear whether charges will go ahead, the cases against 4 Ballito surfers have been dropped.
The arrests received national attention, particularly as 2 KwaDukuza municipal officers were videoed removing a crying 4-year-old child from the Chaka’s Rock complex where some of the group were living.
The officers were responding to a complaint after several families had allegedly been seen on Chaka’s Rock beach. The families with their children were already on their way home when the officers arrived to arrest them.
Those charged included the boy’s father and 10 other people, including an elderly couple and a pregnant woman.
All 11 were held in cells at the Umhlali police station after their arrest and charged in terms of the Disaster Management Act before being granted bail of R1 000 each and summoned to appear in court in August.
Pressure group Afriforum’s head prosecutor, Gerrie Nel, who is representing 9 of the victims, said they were subpoenaed by the State to appear in the Umhlali magistrates court on August 10, but the matter was not placed on the court roll as it was a public holiday.
Afriforum spokesperson Natasha Venter said their Private Prosecution Unit has since made representations to the prosecutor on the case arguing that the charges should not be reinstated.
“We are currently awaiting a response by the prosecutor of the National Prosecuting Authority,” said Venter.
Afriforum has also asked for their bail money to be refunded.
An internal investigation by KDM municipality cleared the officers of wrongdoing, but KDM’s attorney refused to hand over the investigation report to Afriforum.
Nel said that none of his clients had been consulted or asked to provide their version of the event.
Nor had the municipality answered questions about the failure of the peace officers to wear masks and to maintain a reasonable social distance.
Venter said it remained an unanswered question whether the municipal officials had the power to arrest 11 people under the Criminal Procedure Act as they were municipal peace officers.
However, KDM spokesperson Sipho Mkhize said that all work done by KDM peace officers, who serve as traffic and crime prevention officers, during lockdown was and still is legitimate.
“Our officers apprehended, and will continue to apprehend, wrongdoers and hand them over to Saps who then complete the arresting and fining processes – this has always been the modus operandi,” said Mkhize.
However, the 4 Ballito surfers arrested during lockdown level 4 told the Courier this week that when they went to Stanger magistrates court they were told their cases had been dismissed.
“We received a notice to appear in court and hired a lawyer to represent us but all our cases were dismissed before we even went inside the court,” said one of the surfers.
National police minister Bheki Cele told Parliament last month that 32 303 people had been arrested in KZN for contravening the lockdown regulations between March 26 and July 9.
Across the country 280 047 people were arrested.
Of these, 64 873 (23%) of the cases had been dropped or dismissed in court.
