South African President Cyril Ramaphosa on Monday told criminals that law enforcement agents would exercise zero tolerance for all lawbreakers during the month-long lockdown.
Ramaphosa said this in view of the rampant criminal activities during the coronavirus lockdown which have seen arson attacks on schools and destruction of other structures in the country.
In addition, there has been a general increase of Gender-Based Violence (GBV) against women and children across the country, a development which has alarmed the country, he added.
The criminal justice system is not on leave just because the country is under a lockdown and is ready to pounce on all transgressors, both burglars and GBV criminals, the president warned.
“You will be arrested, you will be tried and you will be put behind bars,” Ramaphosa said.
He added that it was very unfortunate that criminals were preying on the weak and vulnerable, especially women and children, in their homes as they observed the stay-at-home rule against the virus.
“It is despicable that criminals are using this period of the lockdown as a cover to break the law at a time when our law-enforcement authorities are occupied with supporting the national effort to contain the coronavirus pandemic”, the president said.
Since the lockdown began, several schools in South Africa have been burgled, trashed and burnt to the ground.
Police Minister Bheki Cele said his office had so far received nearly 100,000 calls from women victims of GBV.
Ramaphosa announced that the country’s Interim Steering Committee on Gender-Based Violence and Femicide, in consultation with civil society organisations, is developing guidelines and protocols for GBV management in the context of COVID-19 for use by the police.
Since the outbreak of the pandemic, some 25 people have died out of 2,173 cases in South Africa, which has so far conducted more than 80,000 tests for the virus.
NM/jn/APA