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Thursday, 02 April 2020, marked 7 days of the 21 days lockdown in South Africa. The aim of lockdown is the South African government’s effort to try to flatten the infection curve of the Coronavirus. A list of regulations were gazetted as per the requirement of South Africa’s Disaster Management Act.

As expected the law enforcement units have been forefront of making sure that these laws are adhered to. On the first few days of the initiation of the lockdown, some citizens were already on the wrong sides of the regulations and were therefore arrested.

Police Minister, Bheki Cele, during a press briefing in Pretoria updated the nation with regards to compliance to the lockdown. “What has been a dampener since the beginning of the lockdown has been the consistently high number of people arrested for violating the lockdown regulations,” said the Minister. According to Minister, on the 30th of March 2020, 2298 were made nationwide and by close of business on 31 March 2020, the total sum of arrests had reached 17 209 since the kick-off of the lockdown.

1562 arrests were made in the North West Province. Offences vary between transport related offences, liquor related and general non-compliance with the Regulations.

“Ideally,” said the Minister, “we would prefer that our communities and all stakeholders cooperate and comply to minimise the risk of exposure of both themselves as well as our 24 389 law enforcement members to the COVID-19. We really do not want to arrest people but to contain the spread of the Virus.”

-The VIP Team

-SAPS Ministry