SAfrica crime rate drops, minister says thanks to virus lockdown booze ban

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South Africa's media-savvy police boss has been boasting of a dramatic fall in crime since South Africa imposed a 21-day coronavirus lockdown, along with a ban on the sale of booze.

South African Police Minister Bheki Cele sports a dark hat and pinstriped suit, a style that escapes no one in its echo of Eliot Ness, the famed enforcer of Prohibition in 1920s America.

Reported rape cases fell to 101 from 699, while cases of grievous bodily harm declined eight-fold to 456 from 2,673."We attribute this to the non-availability of alcohol," he declared last weekend.The pandemic appears indeed to have provided a respite for a country with one of the highest crime rates in the world.

A research consultant at the Pretoria-based Institute of Security Studies, Johan Burger, said more visible policing and fewer people on the streets have inevitably led to a reduction of some crimes, especially in public spaces. Shaun Shelly, founder of an awareness programme called SA Drug Policy Week, said the alcohol ban was"purely a moral position" and there was insufficient evidence to prove it had the dampening effects on crime as claimed by Cele.

"I think the minister is overreaching and that the power has gone to head," he said, warning against a drift towards an"authoritarian regime"."Bheki Cele should go 21 days without a hat. Then he can lecture us about going 21 days without smoking," tweeted Roman Cabanac.

 

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