Government set to give jail time for people flouting rules against big gatherings

Flouting the recently announced ban on gatherings of more than 100 people could soon land you in jail.

This as government prepares to publish new regulations that could have a marked impact on day-to-day life as part of its ramped-up response to Covid-19’s descent on South Africa.

Minister of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta) Dr Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma was today expected to gazette these new regulations in the wake of President Cyril Ramaphosa declaring a national state of disaster on Sunday night.

This morning, Cogta spokesperson Lungi Mtshali said a statement would be released along with the official gazette this afternoon. At the time of publishing, neither were available.

The Citizen has been reliably informed, however, that the minister has at least considered including a clause that would make it a criminal offence – punishable by up to six months in prison or a fine – to organise or attend a gathering of more than 100 people.

And further, it would allow for the prosecution of those who had facilitated gatherings of more than 100 people, particularly at venues.

The president announced that these gatherings would be “prohibited”.

The new regulations could see a ban on late-night liquor sales, in line with Gauteng Community Safety MEC Faith Mazibuko’s announcement this afternoon of a clampdown. Some states in the United States have made similar moves, completely shutting down bars and nightclubs for a 30-day period. Estonia was reportedly this week also in talks over restricting alcohol sales.

Back at home, government has begun looking at steps to be taken in the event of a Covid-19 death, and the new regulations could officially outline these steps – specifically that the body must be disposed of within five days.

South Africa’s state mortuaries have in recent years made headlines for being severely under-resourced, and backlogs have been suffered as a result.

But the South African Medical Association’s Professor Gert Saayman said in a statement yesterday that the body of someone who died from Covid-19 would not necessarily have to be sent to the state mortuary.

“Patients who have died from any of these conditions are not to be referred for forensic medical investigation and are not further managed by the forensic pathology services or state mortuaries,” Saayman said.

“The remains of patients who have died from Covid-19 are channelled from private homes, hospital wards, or mortuaries directly to private undertakers who will be responsible for burial and/or cremation thereof.”

He also said that expediting the process of disposing of such bodies would be important.

“In such cases, it would be important for the attending physician to clearly advise all parties concerned of the inherent risks of transmission and that appropriate precautionary measures should be taken in handling the body,” Saayman said.

“In all cases, the burial and/or cremation of such remains should furthermore be expedited so as not to enhance or prolong the risks of subsequent exposure to the body. It is likely that further prescriptive and/or restrictive measures will be forthcoming, including for example, that the remains of such deceased individuals who are foreign nationals would not be repatriated to countries of origin.”

Meanwhile, Minister of Transport Fikile Mbalula yesterday gazetted a set of new regulations specifically for ports.

These included banning foreign citizens from entering the country through any sea ports as well as banning South Africans from exiting the country through any sea ports. They also included increased hygiene control and sterilisation measures and the implementation of a tracking, tracing and monitoring system.

Government’s latest efforts to curb the spread of the virus come as the number of infected people in South Africa rose to more than 100 this week.

“South Africa now has 116 confirmed cases of Covid-19,” the department of health said in a statement this morning.

Thirty-one new cases were confirmed between Tuesday night and yesterday morning and six of these were local transmission cases.

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