A Nasinu Town Council enforcement officer has been suspended with full paid leave effective immediately after a video was circulated on social media showing a vendor selling vegetables making allegations against the officer and his co-worker.
The Council says this suspension will remain in place for two weeks to allow for a comprehensive and independent investigation into their conduct.
The video showed a vendor making allegations that the two enforcement officers forcefully tried to take the produce that the vendor was selling before the suspended officer slapped the phone away from the vendor while the vendor was taking videos of what was happening.
The Nasinu Town Council says the vendor was selling vegetables from a truck parked illegally in the middle of Ratu Dovi Road near the Kinoya Sewage Plant on February 13th.
The Council says upon learning of the video, they had an emergency meeting yesterday, to thoroughly review the incident and hear from the two officers implicated.
The Council tribunals found that the vendors had breached section 69 which explicitly prohibits the obstruction of roadways, footpaths or passages and it granted their officers the authority to remove such obstructions to ensure public safety and order.
They add that an independent committee will be established to investigate the incident thoroughly and provide a detailed report on its findings.
This committee will also review the existing procedures for engaging with illegal vendors and suggest improvements.
The Council says they are also committed to working on a few measures to ensure that this incident doesn’t happen again.
The Council adds this incident is part of a broken system that the administrators have been made aware of in the last 7 weeks of their appointment and their current systems need an immediate overhaul.
