While Police Minister Bheki Cele revealed comparative crime statistics from April 2019 and the 2020 lockdown, showing serious crimes such as murder, rape and assault had dropped by between 66% and 87%, police had their hands full dealing with new threats to law and order in desperate communities suffering mounting hunger.
Positive cases in South Africa rose by 170 to 3 635, and there have been seven more deaths, five in the Western Cape and two in KwaZulu-Natal.
All eyes will be on President Cyril Ramaphosa when he addresses the country later today with more detail on the government’s plans for a phased reopening of the economy in the weeks ahead. Some relaxation of regulations is expected, with a risk appraisal of industries – along the lines suggested this week by the IRR – likely being the key to determining which businesses can resume operations.
However, despite the announcement of a multi-billion rand aid package on Tuesday, hunger and desperation have led to looting and clashes with police.
In the Western Cape, a large police contingent saw off a threat to shops in Mitchells Plain’s Watergate Mall.
Police told News24 that other incidents included the ambushing of an Elsies River supermarket by a group of about 15 people who took items valued at R3 000; the storming of a supermarket by some 50 people in Delft South, who made off with groceries valued at R14 000; the looting of other nearby shops; and police action to stop looting of a delivery truck in Phillipi East.
Earlier, a woman was killed when struck by a delivery truck (carrying empty pallets), which overturned after being stoned by would-be looters near Belhar.
In Johannesburg, the Muslim Association of South Africa handed out food parcels to the community of Zamimpilo, west of Johannesburg, but said they were unable to meet the high demand, leaving many people empty-handed, according to News24.
Minister of Defence Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula confirmed that the whole SANDF was being put on standby as the ‘magnitude of the challenge’ of maintaining law and order became clearer. She was addressing Parliament’s Joint Standing Committee on Defence. News24 reported that the the Standing Committee agreed to refer Democratic Alliance interim leader John Steenhuisen to the Speaker for tweeting the letter detailing the deployment of the SANDF, adding that ‘ANC MPs spent more time discussing the “leaking” of the letter than the actual deployment.’
It was reported that Minister of Communications, Telecommunications and Postal Services, Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams paid an admission of guilt fine of R1 000 on Tuesday for having broken lockdown regulations.
She had earlier been served with a summons to appear in the Pretoria District Court on 22 May 2020.
Tax Justice South Africa said it had again urged the government to heed growing calls for a review of what it called the ‘nonsensical’ and ‘draconian’ ban on cigarettes, which it said threatened to undermine the lockdown.
Founder Yusuf Abramjee said the ban was enriching illegal cigarette dealers, and, far from reducing the movement of people, meant ‘South Africa’s 11 million smokers (were being encouraged) to travel further to find cigarettes in the black market’.
The Young Nurses Indaba Trade Union, an affiliate of the South African Federation of Trade Unions, said it was considering protest action because it felt neglected by the government, having complained about a lack of personal protective equipment, expensive transport and ‘poverty-level’ salaries. The Department of Health warned a stay away would be a criminal offence.
In other virus-related news
- A 13-year-old boy was among six people killed in Kenya in alleged police violence during the enforcement of a dusk-to-dawn curfew implemented to curb the spread of Covid-19, according to Human Rights Watch;
- WHO chief Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said he believed the organization had warned the world of Covid-19 early enough. ‘Looking back I think we declared the emergency at the right time and when the world had enough time to respond,’ he said. He said the WHO issued its warning when there were no deaths and just 82 cases;
- In the United States, the mid-western state of Missouri filed a civil lawsuit in a US court, accusing China of deception; and
- The BBC reported that while big birthday parties were banned for everyone else in Moscow, several dozen communists processed across Red Square, beneath red banners, to honour the 150th anniversary of the birth of Vladimir Lenin, founder of the Soviet Union. They were given permission, provided they observed the social distancing rules … ‘but an initial attempt to stay two metres apart lasted only moments’.