The South African security forces have arrested nearly 2 300 people for allegedly failing to comply with the directives laid out by government during the unprecedented state of disaster currently in force in the country.
The Minister of Police Bheki Cele said law enforcement agencies had arrested 2 289 suspects for non-compliance with COVID-19 national state of emergency regulations.
“They must stick with them [regulations] so that we are not forced to enforce the law. From the 27 [March 2020], until midnight, 2289 people have been arrested for breaking those regulations, especially alcohol and traffic offenses,” Cele said.
Around 24 000 law enforcers, made up of the South African Police Service, the South African National Defence Force, and metro police units, have been deployed to enforce the regulations.
Cele also announced that there was a spike in gender-based violence with at least 87 000 cases reported to police stations across the country since the lockdown came into force.
“If not mistaken, the last number we’ve received as the NATJOINTS [ National Joint Operational and Intelligence Structure] is that since it started, [the national lockdown] 87 000 people have phoned in reporting that there might be gender-based violence in their houses.”
However, Cele could not say how many gender-based violence arrests had been made.
