Durban North SAPS arrest those not respecting nationwide lockdown

DURBAN North SAPS has urged residents to respect the 21 day lockdown or face arrest. This comes after several arrests were made on day of the nationwide lockdown.

In uMhlanga and Durban North, two people were arrested, while several others were warned confirmed Capt Raymond Deokaran, spokesman for the station.

“The first person who was arrested had three people in his vehicle and would not stop when police attempted to pull him over. A chase ensued and he was eventually stopped and arrested. The second arrest was a taxi driver who in the early hours of Saturday morning was picking up call centre workers but he was arrested and charged for carrying more than the allocated number of passengers. They were charged under the Disaster Management Act,” he said.

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Deokaran said police were cracking down on those who broke the rules and said more arrests would be made for those continuing to flout the law.

“We have warned several others about what a lockdown means. There is to be no jogging or dog-walking. We urge residents to have patience and respect the 21 day lockdown as government introduces measures to ensure that social distance is maintained to limit the spread of the coronavirus,”  he said.

Countrywide, police had arrested 55 people on the first day of a nationwide lockdown.

To date, South Africa has 1 170 cases of Coronavirus, with one confirmed death and one death highly suspected to be linked to COVID-19.

In international COVID-19 case: Italy, Spain suffer record virus deaths as infection rate surges

While there were shortcomings on the first day of the lockdown, Deokaran said police operations would continue as normal.

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