Containment: South African police and military implicated in violence

Text by: Claire Bargelès Follow

South Africa is the country most affected on the continent by the coronavirus with 1,353 people tested positive, and already five dead. To enforce national containment, nearly 20,000 police and soldiers were deployed.

Publicity

From our correspondent in South Africa,

In South Africa, videos of abuse have multiplied on social networks since the start of confinement. In one of them, police and soldiers force a man to do push-ups on the street, or another to go forward crouching on the sidewalk, under the laughter of witnesses. Humiliating physical exercises, to punish non-compliance with the rules of confinement.

South Africa lockdown trespassers get a rare treat pic.twitter.com/QjlPE9kRly

In other images, in Johannesburg and Cape Town, police use rubber bullets or a water cannon to disperse crowds gathered around supermarkets. Citizens are also hit after refusing to comply with their orders. Finally, in the center of the country, the dispersal of a demonstration by hospital workers against the cost of transport left two nurses injured.

► Read also: Coronavirus : the police and the army on the streets in South Africa

Bad memories

The police spokesman condemned the violence, as did the Minister of Defense, who asked the soldiers to stop using " all excessive force, whatever the level of provocation ." In addition, investigations have been opened into three suspicious deaths at the hands of the police, almost as many as the death toll from coronavirus in the country.

Such images bring back bad memories to citizens, who have a complicated history with their police. In the townships , the districts where the black populations were forcibly displaced under apartheid , the sight of uniforms, of the army as well as of the police, reminded the oldest generations of bullying and terror under this regime, especially under the state of emergency in the 1980s. The symbol of that time, the sjambock , a kind of long whip, is still on the police belt today. And they sometimes use it to punish recalcitrants during this confinement.

In military trellis, the Head of State, Cyril Ramaphosa, however tried to remind before the beginning of the confinement that this time, it is the whole population which is fighting against an invisible enemy, and that the army must behave as " a force of kindness ". An instruction which is therefore not always followed.

Zero tolerance

The measures decided by the government of Cyril Ramaphosa are ultimately very strict, and complicated to implement. The Minister of Police, Bheki Cele, even advocates zero tolerance in an attempt to stem the epidemic: no alcohol, sale of cigarettes or sporting outings. And anyone who tries to get around the rules faces fines and six months in prison.

But the lack of clarity in certain measures is sometimes perplexing. Traders were forced by patrols to close their small neighborhood stores, while the president authorized their opening to sell essential items.

If the population has been rather understanding with regard to controls so far, it is difficult to respect this total confinement in the overcrowded slums and in lack of food. However, these areas are experiencing their first positive cases in recent days, which raises fears of an expansion of the virus among these vulnerable populations.

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• South Africa
• Containment
• Coronavirus

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