Media personality Somizi Mhlongo-Motaung was arrested and granted bail over the weekend after Transport Minister Fikile Mbalula laid a charge against him.
On Friday, the minister opened a case against the Idols SA judge at Sandton SAPS on a charge of breaching disaster-management regulations related to “information dissemination and misinformation”.
Hours before President Cyril Ramaphosa announced the lockdown extension, Somizi claimed on Instagram Live that Mbalula had given him a heads-up about the extension.
LAID CHARGE: Fikile Mbalula
He later apologised to Mbalula for his “joke” via a video on Instagram: “I’m just like you, I did not know about it. I was just guessing. I would like to apologise to the honourable minister for making a joke like that. It was just a joke, a bad joke”
View this post on Instagram
A post shared by Somizi (@somizi) on Apr 10, 2020 at 5:44am PDT
Mbalula said that although he had noted Somizi’s apology, he did not view it as a mere joke.
He was arrested he is on bail.
— Minister of Transport |Mr Fix (@MbalulaFikile) April 14, 2020
Police spokesperson Brigadier Vishnu Naidoo said: “[Somizi] was charged and released on R1500 bail, and is expected to make a court appearance on 3 July”, Naidoo said.