Two men were arrested for allegedly selling and buying illegal informal traders’ permits in Protea Glen, Soweto, on Monday.
It’s alleged the men also sell fake medical certificates at a cost of R400 each.
Police used a decoy to lure the suspects. The man was also arrested on the crime scene and later released.
The two suspects will be charged with fraud and contravening the Disaster Management Act.
Johannesburg Metro Police Spokesperson Waynne Minnaar has hailed the arrests as a breakthrough.
“One of them will definitely be fraud as well as contravening the COVID-19 regulations. It’s important to clamp down on any illegal activity because its fraud and secondly to support the plans of government and this is contrary to what we are trying to achieve.”
The city was given a tip-off of syndicate selling illegal permits. The police moved swiftly to shut the operation down.
It’s still unclear how much the suspects made in their illicit scheme.
City of Johannesburg Spokesperson Nthatisi Modingoane says: “It’s not only a permit for informal trading; it’s also permits allowing people to move from province to province and defeating the whole regulations of the lockdown principles. So we are worried about this and we don’t know how big the extent is and our officers are busy questioning him now.”
The suspects tried resisting arrest, but police were unfazed and took them to a nearby police station.
In the video below, police nab suspected syndicate members selling illegal informal traders’ permits:
The local councillor says he found out about the syndicate a week ago and asked his colleague to act as a decoy in helping to arrest the suspects.
Protea Glen Ward councillor Elliot Sithole says: “In fact I was arrested for four hours but I proved myself that I did not issue any permits then fortunately enough people called me to tell me about this internet cafe that is issuing the permits.”
The suspects are to appear in court later this week. Police continue to investigate.
