[imagesource: Jacques Naude/ ANA]

On Thursday, it came to light that Hennie’s Moreleta Restaurant in Pretoria was looking to launch a civil claim against the state after the police arrested and detained its general manager.

Atrayo Nolte was held for eight hours on Friday night for allegedly serving gin, in contravention of the Disaster Management Act.

As you all know, the sale and onsite consumption of alcohol are currently banned.

Nolte, pictured above with owner Werner Pretorius, claims that his arrest happened for serving a customer a ‘non-alcoholic gin’.

On Tuesday, reports TimesLIVE, the case went to the Hatfield Magistrate’s Court, where a decision was made not to enrol the matter.

Here’s Nolte on what he says happened:

“One of the guys approached the bar and was very persistent that he wanted us to serve them alcohol. We told him we didn’t have it, and he agreed that they would have a non-alcoholic gin and tonic. He asked us to ‘make it nice’, and we explained that all he was going to get was a non-alcoholic drink,” said Nolte.

The drink was poured and served to the customer who was sitting outside.

Two SAPS officers in plain clothes then entered the premises. They didn’t follow COVID-19 protocols (having their temperature taken, or signing in) and asked where the alcohol was kept. They also smelled the drink and said that they were convinced that it was alcohol.

More from Nolte:

“My staff even showed the cops the empty bottle of Soho nonalcoholic gin that was poured. They were having none of it. They just wanted to know where our storeroom was,” he said.

The cops, who said that they were from the Johannesburg South precinct, then confiscated the alcohol, loading roughly R112 000 worth into vehicles.

In an update on the situation from TimesLIVE, while the matter was not enrolled in court, the police are dragging their feet when it comes to releasing the alcohol back to the restaurant.

“I said it before and I’ll say it again, it was all about the liquor,” Pretorius said on Thursday night.

“They weren’t worried about whether we had the necessary Covid-19 safety protocols but they just wanted our alcohol stock. Now that we want it back they are finding every excuse not to return it.”

Pretorius’ attorney, Alet Uys, said the police were in contravention of section 31 of the Criminal Procedure Act.

Section 31 refers to the “disposal of articles where no criminal proceedings are instituted”.

In other words, the stock needs to be returned.

The excuse given so far is that the Garsfontein station needs to be shown the front page of the docket saying that the case has been dropped. The captain at the station dealing with the matter allegedly says that the detective who was investigating the case has to make a call to release the stock.

SAPS – organised as always.

So far, during the current laws regarding alcohol under adjusted alert level 3, the cops haven’t exactly been covering themselves in glory.

From being hammered in public to being caught on camera possibly delivering alcohol to someone’s house, it’s no wonder that folks aren’t buying the “we have to follow procedure” excuse.

[sources:timeslive&timeslive]