Cele warns South Africans to take the lockdown seriously

In his national address today In Cape Town, Police Minister, Bheki Cele, touched on numerous transgressions of the lockdown rules, saying some seemed to need a ‘nudge’ to convince them to obey the law.

He reiterated the plans already in place to curb crime such as the prohibition on the selling and buying of alcohol during the nationwide lockdown. “You don’t buy alcohol…nobody sells it, nobody buys it,” he stated firmly.

Using Italy as an example, he spoke about the catastrophic situation there with 627 deaths reported in the past 24 hours and warned South Africans they should stop thinking the Covid-19 virus is not an African problem. “It has begun to kill people here,” he stated.

He again appealed to all South Africans to obey the law and do what’s best for the country.

Cele likened the measures put in place to medicine, saying they were preventing what he believed, if left uncurbed, would be a national catastrophe.

He again outlined the regulations around funerals saying no more than 50 people would be allowed to attend but acknowledged, “These rules are new territory and adapting is hard for everyone.”

He reminded South Africans that individuals are not permitted to leave their homes during the lockdown period.  Dog walking, jogging, loitering on the sidewalks and gatherings, even for religious reasons, are not permitted.

He went on to addressed concerns raised, regarding over- crowding and long queues at supermarkets. He advised shoppers to use trollies as a means to maintain distance between each other when in this situation. He also revealed that the Departments of Trade and Industry, Economic Development and Police all agreed this needs to be addressed urgently.

While legislation is yet to be put in place, Cele said that the three departments had agreed that only 50 customers would be allowed into a store at a time. The others will queue outside. “We have agreed that this is a challenging area we need to fix and fix it quickly,” he stated.

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