Covid-19: Don’t take the law into your own hands to enforce lockdown regulations, warns authorities

Most South Africans are adhering to lockdown regulations, but authorities are calling for individuals who take the law into their own hands to comply.

In one instance in the Eastern Cape, taxi operators tried to prevent some vehicles from transporting essential services workers to work. Then, one person was arrested in Gauteng in connection to an incident last week in which a group stormed a local supermarket, disrupted services and demanded the store manager provides gloves and masks to all employees. A similar incident took place in Mpumalanga.

The call for citizens to stop taking the law into their own hands comes from the National Joint Operational And Intelligence Structure (NatJoints) – made up of various government departments that are responsible for coordinating the Covid-19 operations, such as high density policing operations, border control, route security and public health infection containment.

NatJoints said in a statement, “We call upon civilians to adhere to the regulations and not attempt to enforce the lockdown regulations on their own as citizens are required to remain in the confines of their own homes during this period and by not doing so will themselves be breaking the law.

“The South African Police Service will continue to act on all complaints received as no one has a special provision to act in a manner that is contrary to the regulations governing the lockdown period.”