CORONAVIRUS: COUPLE ARRESTED AT THEIR WEDDING VENUE ALONGSIDE 40 GUESTS FOR LOCKDOWN VIOLATION

THE COUPLE MAKING THEIR WAY INTO A POLICE VAN

A bride, a groom, a priest and 40 guests were arrested at a wedding venue after defying lockdown rules in South Africa. 

Jabulani Zulu, 48, and his bride Nomthandazo Mkhize, 38, said 'I do' in KwaZulu Natal province shortly before South African army officers stormed their wedding brandishing guns and wearing face masks.

The country is on its second week of a nation-wide lockdown to slow the spread of the virus, which has killed 11 people and infected more than 1,600.

Footage taken after the raid shows the groom helping his wife - still clad in her gown - into the back of a police car.

The officers stormed their wedding brandishing guns and wearing face masks because they defied South Africa's Disaster Management Act

They were arrested for breaching rules set out in the Disaster Management Act but were released on £43 bail, the Zululand Observer reports.

A concerned member of the public called the police to report the party.

Appearing in a broadcast on a South African news channel ENCA, police spokesman Vish Naidoo said: 'When they got there they arrested the pastor, the pastor, the bridal couple as well as approximately 40 other people.'

When asked by the anchor: 'Was the pastor not aware that we are in a lockdown at the present moment?'

The spokesman replied: 'Well, I think the whole nation is aware. But people are still trying to take chances not realizing the seriousness of this virus.'

The deadly bug has infected more than one million people and killed at least 69,500.

He added: 'For now I don't think they can have any reasonable explanation to be continuing with that wedding. 

'We will be interviewing each one individually and the charges will be put to them.'

It comes as experts suggest South Africa's knowledge and infrastructure to conduct mass testing might give them an advantage in battling coronavirus. 

Years of fighting HIV and tuberculosis has endowed South Africa with a network of testing sites and laboratories in diverse communities across the country that may help it cope, say experts.

Health experts stress that the best way to slow the spread of the virus is through extensive testing, the quick quarantine of people who are positive, and tracking who those people came into contact with. 

Francois Venter, deputy director of the Reproductive Health Institute at the University of Witswatersrand, said: 'We have testing infrastructure, testing history and expertise that is unprecedented in the world.

'It is an opportunity that we cannot afford to squander.'

The country imposed a three-week lockdown March 27 that bought it some time, said Venter