MILITARY MINDSET NEEDS OVERHAUL
THIS week marks a year since the National Disaster Management Act – that gave birth to this 362-days-long national lockdown – was declared in South Africa in response to the coronavirus pandemic that overwhelmed the world.
It is also exactly a year since the first case of Covid-19 was reported and the country’s health sector and the economy were tested to the limit.
In South Africa more than 1.5 million people have tested positive for the coronavirus with more than 50 000 having succumbed to the killer virus.
The first official case of Covid-19 was announced by Health Minister Zweli Mkhize on March 5.
The patient was a man, 38, who had travelled to Italy and returned on March 1.
The first person to die of coronavirus, according to official reports, was a 48-year-old woman from Cape Town’s northern suburbs on March 27.
The government, in its response to the Covid-tsunami, implemented various measures to limit the devastating effects of the pandemic.
One such measure was the deployment of the SANDF, to assist the already overwhelmed police and the metro police with enforcing Covid-19 lockdown restrictions.
That move – the deployment of the military – had somewhat devastating consequences. We ended with the death of Collins Khosa, an Alexandra man who, it is alleged, the soldiers assaulted on April 10.
Although an SANDF internal probe cleared the soldiers responsible of Khoza’s demise, the family are pursuing criminal charges with the courts.
Another family in Mpumalanga are suing Defence Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula to the tune of R145 million after their 38-year-old relative was shot dead, allegedly by soldiers outside Bushbuckridge on July 4.
Many stories of brutality by SANDF members are doing the rounds among communities and on social media.
The military had been found to be enforcing the Covid-19 lockdown at the expense of undermining human rights, personal dignity and common sense.
A solution is needed, urgently, to deal with the mindset of the men and women in the military.