The SA Police Minister Bheke Cele - clearly not a man who is concerned about the public vote - has followed up his ban on the sale and transportation of Alcohol and Cigarettes during the 21 day lockdown with a further ban - this time on hugging and kissing.
He was briefing Police and Army officers, who are enforcing the lockdown, during a visit to the Western Cape when he added this clarification - clearly sensible under the social distancing rules - but a little worrying given the somewhat heavy-handed nature of the policing so far.
According to the news reports, there have been more than 25,000 arrests for breaches of the lockdown rules so far and numerous claims of police brutality and a number of deaths attributed to them.
On the positive side there have only been 94 murders so far during the lockdown compared to 326 for the same period last year. The number of reported rapes has also reduced from 700 to 101 in the same period. However there has been a substantial increase in domestic violence - around 800 per day.
The Covid-19 news is pretty good with a total of 1700 confirmed cases across the country and 13 deaths so far. The lockdown has certainly slowed the spread of the virus and today was the launch of a mass screening and testing programme which will focus initially on the most vulnerable communities.
Of course, we are all waiting to hear whether the lockdown will be ended in 8 days as originally announced, or extended for a further period as many expect. The President was ducking the question in today's press conference - although he did quip at the end that while they had announced April 16 as the end date they hadn't specified which year!
He was briefing Police and Army officers, who are enforcing the lockdown, during a visit to the Western Cape when he added this clarification - clearly sensible under the social distancing rules - but a little worrying given the somewhat heavy-handed nature of the policing so far.
According to the news reports, there have been more than 25,000 arrests for breaches of the lockdown rules so far and numerous claims of police brutality and a number of deaths attributed to them.
On the positive side there have only been 94 murders so far during the lockdown compared to 326 for the same period last year. The number of reported rapes has also reduced from 700 to 101 in the same period. However there has been a substantial increase in domestic violence - around 800 per day.
The Covid-19 news is pretty good with a total of 1700 confirmed cases across the country and 13 deaths so far. The lockdown has certainly slowed the spread of the virus and today was the launch of a mass screening and testing programme which will focus initially on the most vulnerable communities.
Of course, we are all waiting to hear whether the lockdown will be ended in 8 days as originally announced, or extended for a further period as many expect. The President was ducking the question in today's press conference - although he did quip at the end that while they had announced April 16 as the end date they hadn't specified which year!
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