Covid-19: Arrests and fear during SA lockdown

Johannesburg - Authorities appear to be battling to contain Covid-19, which has already claimed one life and laid bare the levels of inequality in the country.

The government’s national lockdown and management of the pandemic were thrown into disarray on Friday when a 30-year-old man, who tested positive for the acute respiratory virus, refused to self quarantine and absconded to Tzaneen, in Limpopo, from Gauteng.

He was arrested at his village by police in the early hours of Saturday. This came as the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) announced that Covid-19 cases surged beyond the 1000 mark and that the virus claimed its first casualty, identified as Western Cape resident Madeleine van Wyk.

Sources told the Sunday Independent that another man was also arrested in Rustenburg, North West, after travelling from Gauteng against orders to self isolate pending the release of his test results. Some refused to self-isolate while awaiting the results while others disobeyed orders to be quarantined after testing positive.

Hosi Tinyiko N’wamitwa said she asked Deputy Police Minister Cassel Mathale to ensure the man was immediately arrested after Limpopo health MEC Dr Phophi Ramathuba informed her about the case on Friday night.

“I felt that waiting for today [Saturday] would not work because it was a serious issue. It needed prompt attention. I phoned Deputy Minister Cassel Mathale and said ‘your job is to arrest people’, the MEC’s responsibility is health care.

He then phoned the provincial commissioner (General Nneke Ledwaba), who called Major-General Mathebula. Around 10pm, he called me and said he had got the message and they would go pick him up immediately. That was done at around 2am today,” said Hosi N’wamitwa, adding that she was disappointed because the man had risked infecting about 800 000 people in the area.

Hosi N’wamitwa called on her

subjects to observe the national lockdown, saying police were forced to remove some of them from the streets on Friday because they were ignoring the orders.

Limpopo Health MEC Dr Phophi Ramathuba confirmed that the man had been arrested and was taken to a hospital in Modimolle for treatment. She indicated that her department

was still trying to ascertain a few

things to understand the full scale of contacts.

“Our immediate response was to get people who he had contact with, starting with the family. Our team is going to his house to screen and test them.

“Once he is settled, we must start tracing any of his contacts. There are some in Gauteng and we must be able to get them,” Ramathuba said.

Ramathuba said she could not say how many people the man might have infected, “because I don’t know where he works, or what type of work he does because that will also have an impact on how many people he infected”.

People lined up outside grocery stores during South Africa's 21-day lockdown. Picture: Tracey Adams/African News Agency (ANA)

The arrest of the Limpopo man follows that of a 52-year-old salon owner in Ladysmith, Kwazulu-Natal. Police said the man was instructed to self-quarantine for at least 14 days pending the results of blood tests after he had travelled to various countries and arrived back in South Africa on March 18.

However, he defied a doctor’s instruction to self-quarantine and allegedly continued with his business and attended a religious gathering.

Police spokesperson, Brigadier Vish Naidoo said 27 people who had been at the man’s salon, and those at the religious gathering, were being sought for testing.

The Eastern Cape’s Patient Zero also refused to self quarantine after testing positive for the virus.

The 28-year-old woman had travelled to Germany in February and had tested positive. The defiance led to the province’s health MEC, Sindiswa Gomba, calling on law enforcement agencies to ensure that she remained in quarantine. The woman claimed to be exercising her freedom of movement.

At least 60 German nationals were placed under quarantine this week after one of them tested positive for the virus. The group had planned to leave the country on Thursday and were found after their bus broke down while on their way to Charlotte Maxeke Hospital earlier in the week.

Transport Minister Fikile Mbalula announced that the tourists would be evacuated on Tuesday after their government had intervened. He said the German Embassy was working on a solution to get their citizens back home, but nothing had been confirmed.

Public transport users left helpless after Soshanguve taxi drivers decided not to work on Sunday morning. Picture: Bongani Shilubane/African News Agency (ANA)

The country’s ports have been closed and flights grounded since Ramaphosa announced a 21-day lockdown.

The national broadcaster has been hit by at least two confirmed cases of Covid-19. The first case was at its Kimberly bureau.

On Saturday, Auckland Park confirmed that the SABC had recorded its second case after it emerged that Netball South Africa President Cecilia Molokwane, who tested positive for Covid-19, had been in the building for an interview.

Her status was confirmed by her organisation, which said she had recently been on business travel to the UK.

She revealed in a telephone interview on Tuesday, with sports personality Robert Marawa, that she had at one stage visited Auckland Park for an interview, which caused panic within the corporation.

And the fears of the broadcaster’s staff were realised on Saturday when another internal communication confirmed the second case of Covid-19.

“The employee was off sick and is hospitalised. All employees in the area are already working from home as part of the contingency plan and will continue to do so while taking the necessary measures to stay healthy and safe.”

The government also came under fire from township residents who accused it of treating them unfairly by imposing a lockdown before they could be paid and stockpile.

Pensioner Nobuntu Khumalo, 72, from Protea South, Soweto, said she had resigned herself to joining long queues in the shops after collecting her old-age pension tomorrow (Monday) and hoped that police would be there to protect the elderly.

“I need medication. I need food. I need the money and I’ll take my chances tomorrow and pray for God’s protection. If there are any police or soldiers out there, then at least they will protect us,” she said.

Khumalo said she feared contracting the coronavirus because of her deteriorating health.

“I actually wish people would take this seriously so it can end because I live in fear of dying from coronavirus, especially because of how weak my immune system is.

Covid-19 has proved deadly here and abroad.

More than 662,700 people have been

infected by the novel coronavirus across the world and 30,751

have died, according to a Reuters tally.

Infections have been reported in more than 200 countries and

territories since first cases were identified in China in

December 2019.