South African police commissioner General Bheki Cele said Tuesday that a British journalist had been arrested for trying to expose World Cup security flaws as he defended his force’s record during the tournament.
Cele said a tabloid newspaper reporter had been charged with harbouring a fan who intruded into the England dressing room, and the episode was planned to paint World Cup security in a poor light.
Cele also insisted the majority of World Cup-related crimes had been a result of negligence by the victims as he revealed that suspects from 26 other countries as well as South Africa had been arrested.
Police were left red-faced after an England fan wandered into the team’s dressing room in the aftermath of England’s 0-0 draw with Algeria in Cape Town on June 18 and then berated the players for their “disgraceful” performance.
The England team were furious that police failed to arrest him but merely ushered him away.
In an interview with the London-based Sunday Mirror, Pavlos Joseph said that he had stumbled into the locker room by chance as he tried to find the toilet.
But Cele said that studies of CCTV footage had shown it was no accident.
“The police have reason to believe that this incident was orchestrated and involved the cooperation of a number of individuals,” Cele told reporters. “The police strongly believe that the motive was to put the World Cup security in a bad light and possibly to profit from this act.”
He said that Sunday Mirror journalist Simon Wright had been arrested for defeating the ends of justice and accused him of having put Joseph up in a hotel under a false name.
“Mr Wright has admitted to harbouring and interviewing Joseph when the police were searching for the latter in order to affect an arrest,” he said.
‘Absolutely legitimate story’
A spokesperson for the paper insisted its journalist had done nothing wrong.
“It was an absolutely legitimate story that he was involved in,” Trinity Mirror spokesperson Nick Fullagar said, saying the journalist “conducted himself perfectly properly as he would have here in the UK”.
“We have spoken to him and he’s got a lawyer,” he said, adding that he would appear in court on Wednesday morning.
The levels of crime in South Africa, where about 50 murders are committed each day, had led many critics to question whether it was a suitable venue for the world’s biggest sporting event ever since it was awarded hosting rights.
Although no fans have been killed, there have been a number of armed robberies of journalists and some teams have property stolen from their hotels.
There was further embarrassment on Tuesday when local media reported that Deputy Police Minister Fikile Mbalula’s home had been burgled over the weekend.
Mbalula lost several expensive appliances, including an LCD television, at his official residence in Pretoria.
Cele said he regarded the policing of the tournament as a success, which was the result “of well-planned and effective policing as well as intelligence operations and not quite by chance as some may seem to suggest”. — AFP