It shouldn’t be illegal for us to mock this ‘Lockdown Government’

While there is no doubt the cops were correct in arresting Pretoria youngsters for boasting, in a video, how they were flouting the coronavirus restrictions, it is disturbing that police also gave as a reason for the arrests that the men were “mocking” the government’s efforts to contain the virus.

The disaster regulations give the power to the authorities to arrest anyone guilty of distributing “fake news” about the virus and about the government’s campaign to combat it. That also makes sense – because social media has allowed a tsunami of rubbish about the virus to be spread even further than the pandemic itself.

Such fake news can contribute to depression at best or panic at worst.

However, it is worrying that people like Police Minister Bheki Cele, who wears the hat of an authoritarian as comfortably as his “gangster” headgear, is one of those who will be deciding what is, or isn’t, fake news.

Is it an offence, for example, to ask questions about whether the lockdown might do more harm than good if it helps crash the economy?

Can we voice doubts about government infection figures? History shows us that dictators have been nurtured in times of crisis.

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