City of Cape Town threatens legal action after Cele shuts down film shoot on Camps Bay beach

• Police Minister Bheki Cele has ordered a film crew to stop shooting a commercial on Camps Bay beach, saying they were contravening national Covid-19 regulations
• Cele said a municipal by-law could not override the national regulations. The minister was on a walk-about on Cape Town beaches on Reconciliation Day
• The City of Cape Town said it would approach the high court on an urgent basis to reverse Cele's action.

The City of Cape Town says it will take legal action Police Minister Bheki Cele for shutting down the filming of a commercial on Camps Bay beach in Cape Town on Wednesday.

Cele was on a walkabout on beaches in Cape Town when an altercation with a film crew happened in Camps Bay.

"This flies in the face of the Covid-19 regulations by having an extra activity on the beach, which the president and the regulations say cannot happen," he told a man at the scene, who identified himself as "JP". He turned out to be JP Smith, the city's mayoral committee member for safety and security.

Smith insisted that the filming was permitted by regulations and that further permission had been granted by the City of Cape Town.

He told Cele: "I am happy to take this up with the filming officer. Our head of filming assured me that this is within regulations."

However, the minister was having none of it.

"This cannot continue... we are shutting this down. You know you are breaking the law, and you know that regulations do not allow this," he said.

In a statement later issued after the incident, Smith said the City would urgently approach the high court to challenge Cele's decision to halt film production.

The shooting of a commercial was authorised by the City's film by-law office, he said.

"Shutting down the film production without proper cause is an illegal action and it goes against the current national state of disaster regulations, which allow the film industry to continue working. I am concerned about the autocratic manner in which the minister behaved. It is concerning that a political office bearer appears to be issuing unlawful instructions to operating staff where SAPS officers continued to execute this unlawful behaviour," he said.

Filming, added Smith, was a work activity, and should not to be "misconstrued as a recreational activity."

Cele, in a statement, said the "activity by a private company" had been shut down, and that while permitted by the City, the "production was not compliant with what is permitted on beaches, as stipulated on the Covid-19 regulations".

"According to the permit of the production company that was handed to the SAPS, the production would go against the very rules set out by the President which are clear on what is permitted on beaches and therefore could not be allowed to continue for now.” 

Cele and his deputy Cassel Mathale also visited Strand, Clifton, Monwabisi, Big Bay, Strandfontein and Macassar beaches on Wednesday.