PRETORIA - The Tshwane Metro Police Department on Thursday dismissed as "fake news" social media posts alleging that TMPD officers had been attacked, and their vehicle overturned, during the ongoing protest by SA Municipal Workers Union (Samwu) members.
A picture of an overturned TMPD vehicle has been doing the rounds on Twitter. The picture was in fact taken by African News Agency back in 2016, at an unrelated protest, in Pretoria.
"We would like to emphasise that it is an old picture of an incident that took place in 2016. It has nothing to do with the current status of protest in the city, as the picture claims," said TMPD spokesperson, Senior Superintendent Isaac Mahamba.
"We urge members of the public to stop circulating wrong information which is misleading to the community and to law enforcement."
Stick-wielding municipal workers have this week been on the rampage in Pretoria CBD, upending trash bins onto roads and using municipal buses and trucks to block some street intersections to press for an 18 percent salary increase.