According to reports, a diabetic man from Somerset West has been fined by police for allegedly attempting to visit his local pharmacy.
The man identified by News24 as Allan Kirby, 71, a retired medical technologist, is alleged to be a diabetic and is on a permanent medical regime for his illness.
On Friday, he reportedly set off from his home in Somerset West towards Somerset Mall, when he was reportedly stopped at a roadblock on Victoria Road.
“I was asked where I was going, and I said to the pharmacy, to fetch my medicine,” he told News24.
“A woman officer then asked me: ‘Where’s your prescription?’ I told her I have an ongoing prescription, which is recorded on the pharmacy’s records,” he explained.
“But she said: ‘If you don’t have a prescription, you can’t go’. I said: ‘But I’m also going to Checkers, to buy food, which I’m allowed to do. Here is my shopping list. While I’m there, I’m also going to fetch my medicine at the in-store pharmacy’.”
“But she said: ‘No, you said you were going to the pharmacy. And you don’t have a prescription, so I’m going to fine you’,” Kirby explained.
He was pulled off to the side of the road, where he reportedly tried to explain his case to a senior SAPS officer. This seemingly fell on deaf ears, and he was fined R2 500 for “Failure to Confine to Residence”.
“The officer said: ‘You can explain yourself to the court’.”
According to News24, Kirby, a medical technologist of 45 years, was fully aware of the threat the coronavirus presented.
He reportedly pleaded with the police to hear “common sense”, and not penalise people for legitimately and legally trying to access essential medicines.
