Over 1 000 rule breakers nabbed a day

In the 300 days since South Africa first went into lockdown, on average more than 1 000 people have been arrested every day for contravening the Disaster Management Act and the regulations published under it.

Last week, Police Minister Bheki Cele said more than 342 000 people had been arrested and charged under the Act. And the number is still rising.

He also revealed that in the first two weeks of the adjusted level 3 lockdown, effected on 29 December, more than 20 000 arrests had been made.

Dr Johan Burger, a policing expert at the Institute for Security Studies, said this week the numbers were reflective both of the “general lawlessness” in South Africa and “overzealous” policing.

Burger said the police had been facing serious challenges even before the lockdown, which “just exacerbated that situation”.

“But of course there have also been a number of incidents of overzealous law enforcement.”

He said the lockdown had created a difficult situation for the police, “but they also continued to make far too many unnecessary arrests, abuse their authority and use excessive force”.

In the early days, there were reports of police and SA National Defence Force (SANDF) – which was initially deployed to assist – kicking, slapping, whipping and even shooting at members of the public. By 31 March, just five days in, lockdown-related police and military brutality was believed to have claimed three lives – at the time the same number as Covid-19.

The death of Collins Khosa on 10 April, forced the issue to the fore. The 40-year-old father of three died at his home in Alexandra on Good Friday, allegedly after an assault by soldiers over a half-full cup of alcohol that was found in his yard.

His family turned to the courts, where they ended up securing a declaration that even in the current state of disaster, certain basic human rights – such as human dignity and life – were non-derogable and that the police, together with SANDF, remained bound by the constitution and the law.

The family’s lawyer, Wikus Steyl of Ian Levitt Attorneys, said the criminal investigation into his death was “close to finalisation” and that they were in talks to potentially settle a damages claim against the state out of court.

The Independent Police Investigative Directorate (Ipid) told parliament in May, that almost half of the 828 complaints it had received against police during the first six weeks of the lockdown – including 10 deaths in police custody – were linked to the enforcement thereof.

Ipid was this week unable to provide updated figures.