Following the Covid-19 restrictions imposed five years ago, the ministry of police will have to dig into its pocket to pay damages to the operational manager at Whitfield Spar in Boksburg, who was arrested for selling hot food to the public during the government’s restrictions at that time.
The manager, George Lambrakis, had to spend two and a half hours in a crowded police cell before he was granted R1,500 bail. He maintained throughout that the store sold prepackaged items of pap and chicken to the public and that they had thus not contravened the regulations at the time.
The police, on the other hand, were adamant that a worker dished out pap and chicken by hand to customers from a dish.
Following his harrowing ordeal when he was arrested, cuffed and thrown into a police cell in front of his colleagues and customers, Lambrakis turned to the Gauteng High Court, Johannesburg to claim damages from the minister of police for what he deemed his unlawful arrest.
The arrest took place during the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic in April 2020. The Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs at the time placed certain restrictions on the sale of certain items at supermarkets, which included the sale of hot food, in a bid to curb the spreading of the virus.
Sergeant David Makung, the arresting officer, testified that he received a complaint that the Spar at Whitfield was not complying with the Disaster Management Act, in that they were selling hot cooked food.
He responded to the complaint by visiting the concerned store accompanied by Constable Nwepe. According to him, there were a lot of people and social distancing was not observed. Cooked food was being sold by the Spar employee who stood behind the closed glass window. He questioned the employee, who called his superiors.
Makung said the employee explained he was instructed by the employer to sell the food. When the operations manager arrived, he told him he was going to be arrested for selling hot food. Makung also called for back-up and in the end, there were about six officers. They took Lambrakis and another manager to the police station, where they were placed in a cell with other detainees.
Lambrakis testified that the officers in the store showed him the prepacked food and told him that he was contravening the Disaster Management Act. He explained that they had prepared food in foam trays. This was to enable the customers to pick up the food which was already bar coded. His explanation in this regard to the SAPS fell on deaf ears, as according to them, this was hot food – which the minister said may not be sold.
Lambrakis said he was told that he was going to spend the night in jail. He was cuffed and the police forcefully pushed him into the van. His colleague was placed in another van.
They were placed in a cell along with six other prisoners. Later, their lawyers came to apply for bail, only to be told that there were no bail forms. They had to wait until the forms arrived.
Asked how he felt about the incident, Lambrakis testified that he felt degraded after the arrest. He is still scared of the police to an extent that he locks himself up when they come to the store. According to him, he develops panic attacks whenever he comes across police roadblocks.
The court accepted that the store sold prepacked food and did not contravene the law at the time. It was ordered that the SAPS pay Lambrakis the damages he can prove that he had suffered.
