Tourism industry ‘I hope you get the virus’ cop at ground zero in hot water

Restarting major component of the SA economy will be a challenge.

The tourism industry is going to have to be rebuilt from the ground up in the wake of the consequences of the lockdown brought on by the novel coronavirus, according to Tshifhiwa Tshivhengwa, CEO of the Tourism Business Council of South Africa (TBCSA).

His comments came after the TBCSA released a survey showing the dire straits the industry was in. More than 10 million international tourism trips were made to South Africa last year and in 2018, R273.2 billion was injected into the economy. This year, however, has been an unmitigated disaster for the industry, which supported more than 740 000 direct jobs and 1.5 million related jobs.

In April, the department of tourism, in collaboration with the TBCSA and IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, conducted the Tourism Industry Survey of SA: Covid-19, which looked at the extent of the impact of the virus, how effective the support has been and what kind of work was still required.

The lockdown rendered the tourism sector totally inactive.

Tshivhengwa said: “This is an unprecedented crisis for the tourism industry, with the impact felt before lockdown and expected to last well beyond the easing of restrictions. Unless steps can be taken to support the industry, a major component of our economy will close down and restarting it will be a challenge.” –

A senior police officer will be investigated for allegedly threatening an elderly woman, a pregnant woman and several Cape Town residents, who were arrested in Muizenberg for alleged lockdown breaches, by allegedly saying to them: “I hope you get the virus.”

The elderly woman was doubly traumatised because the officer was not wearing a protective mask when he blurted out his alleged message, just centimetres from her face.

In addition, police officials from the station have since been self-isolated by police management after potential contact with a positive Covid-19 case.

These are among several allegations levelled at police in Muizenberg by an elderly woman arrested 15 minutes after the “exercise window” ended – a few hundred metres from her home.

The woman, who is aged 62, tried to tell police she was getting home late because she had a knee injury. But she was made to endure a seven-hour ordeal at a police station.

It allegedly took place at the same police station which has been criticised for being “overzealous” and not using “logic or common sense” in some instances, by their provincial police commissioner, Lieutenant-General Yolisa Matakata.

The comments of the provincial police commissioner refer to the arrest of a mother and father, who ran onto a beach to fetch their toddler and were arrested for breaking the “lockdown” regulations.

The 62-year-old woman was with her son, aged 20, last Tuesday, when they were arrested. At Muizenberg police station, they joined several more arrested people. Among them was the “ocean protester”, who was arrested for “standing still” during the exercise window, as captured in a video which has since gone viral.

Among the allegations the elderly woman and her son made were:

A policeman manhandled the son without cause;

A policeman slammed the woman’s foot in a car door;

A senior officer leaned into the woman’s face and said “I hope you get the virus”, without wearing a mask;

Police fingerprinted arrested residents without wearing gloves, or sanitising their hands;

A pregnant woman was detained at the police station for seven hours in the company of a suspected drug addict, who was “coughing and sneezing with no mask”; and

Police allegedly threatened the couple with detention for 48 hours unless they signed admission of guilt fines of R1 000 each.

The incident has been reported to the chair of the Western Cape provincial parliament’s ad hoc committee on Covid-19, Mireille Wenger, who will to refer it to oversight bodies. – News24 Wire