Charges against a group of Shaka's Rock residents who were arrested for going to the beach during level 5 of the lockdown have been dismissed.

Civil rights organisation AfriForum on Monday said it had been informed of the decision to dismiss the charges against eight residents.

“The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) informed AfriForum’s private prosecution unit in writing that they have officially decided to dismiss the eight complaints against people arrested in Ballito during level 5 of lockdown for the so-called infringement of the Disaster Management Act. This unit addressed representation to the NPA why these people should not be prosecuted,” it said.

AfriForum’s private prosecution unit announced in May that they would become involved with an incident where two peace officers from the KwaDukuza local municipality in Ballito allegedly manhandled a four-year old child against his father’s will and also arrested eight people because they were on the beach.

A video of the incident sparked national outrage, going viral on social media. It showed two KwaDukuza traffic officers attempting to escort a four-year-old boy out of a gated complex in the plush seaside town of Shaka's Rock, on the KZN north coast.

When the father of the child realised what was going on, he attempted to stop the officers, resulting in a tug-of-war over the boy between the 35-year-old father and the officers.

SowetanLIVE's sister publication TimesLIVE previously reported that on May 10 a handful of Shaka's Rock residents were arrested for being in breach of lockdown regulations after they visited the beach on Mother's Day morning.

Soon after the video went viral, the KwaDukuza municipality launched an internal investigation, subsequently clearing the officers of wrongdoing.

AfriForum said on Monday that the NPA had summoned the accused to appear in court on August 10, which was a public holiday and afterwards indicated that the cases would be referred back to police for further investigations.

The prosecutor indicated on October 21 that the NPA will “let the prosecutions go”.

“AfriForum welcomes the NPA’s decision to dismiss the complaints, but strongly feels that the complaints against these people should never have been lodged, and also that the law enforcers’ behaviour in this case was arbitrary and unnecessary,” said AfriForum campaign manager Natasha Venter.

“Most of the members of the public, especially during level 5 of lockdown, tried to make sense of the vague regulations, that were frequently changed and were irrational as well. To punish these people just because they were walking on the beach and furthermore to burden them with criminal records would have been preposterous.”

KZN NPA spokesperson Natasha Kara didn't respond to queries at the time of publishing.

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