Paul Kirk
Durban’s first citizen made his own small contribution to cleaning up the city’s beachfront this week when he took on a group of what he described as “half-naked loafers drinking in public”.
The men he confronted were members of the South African Police Service.
While going for his usual afternoon jog along the beachfront, Obed Mlaba said he came upon a group of five men drinking around a police vehicle.
In terms of Durban’s by-laws it is illegal to consume alcohol in a public place and offenders are regularly fined by Durban’s Metro Police.
The men were easy to identify as police as some of them were partially dressed in police uniform. Most were wearing only their pants and boots.
In terms of some of the city’s more archaic municipal by-laws, men are required to wear shirts in public.
Said Mlaba: “I was quite annoyed. Not only were these people not projecting a good image, they were also sitting around a police vehicle. In the former townships there are hardly enough vehicles for policing and yet here was one standing idle on the beach.”
The explanation from the men, that they had just finished work, cut no mustard with the mayor, who immediately jogged off to the Durban Central police station and laid a complaint against the policemen.
Station commissioner of Durban Central police station, Director Ronnie Winter, confirmed a complaint had been laid by the mayor. He pointed out that while the drinkers were all policemen, they were members of the public order police unit and not under his command.
Director Fanie Masemola, commander of the public order unit in Durban, said he was not “completely aware” of the details of the incident and was awaiting information concerning the incident from Durban Central.
He promised a full inquiry as “drinking in public, in police uniform, is not something our members should be doing”.