Covid-19: Police abuses reveal systemic flaws - The Mail & Guardian

, on the afternoon of Thursday March 26, a few hours before the start of the national lockdown, are also largely to be admired.

Ramaphosa should, from the beginning, have used more temperate language. But the threat posed by the coronavirus required a rapid response. The compelling national interest in imposing the lockdown within a matter of a few days required that it be imposed through the authority of the state. Where enforcement carries with it the risk of confrontations with groups of people, police have become wary of the risks involved. Many inner-city areas and informal settlements are semi no-go zones for the police. Their presence is tolerated. But if their actions do not meet with public approval, they are quickly made to feel unwelcome with taunts and missiles rained upon them.

A remarkable feature of some of these incidents has been the use of sjamboks by police, captured on video in Hillbrow and reported in Springs, as well as allegedly being used during events in Vosloorus that culminated in the death of Sibusiso Amos on Sunday March 29. Since its establishment in 2012, the Independent Police Investigative Directorate has received almost 40 000 complaints of the misuse of force by police. The surge in police brutality during the lockdown is then simply a manifestation of an enduring feature of policing in South Africa, one that is generally treated with public indifference.

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