‘Social visits are absolutely not allowed under level 3’: Cele

No, you cannot visit your family under level 3 of the lockdown.

Police minister Bheki Cele was emphatic on Thursday - social visits are not allowed come June 1.

Speaking at a justice, crime prevention and security cluster briefing, he said that the regulations - which were gazetted later in the day - dictated which activities were allowed. And social visits were not among those.

“I hope you will read regulation 33 very closely. All categories permitted appear there, and visiting your friends, your peers, your girlfriends, your boyfriends, does not appear in regulation 33.

“If you’re not going to [do] those categories that appear in the regulations ... you don’t [do them]. Social visits are absolutely not allowed under level 3. I hope that question is well answered.”

He was speaking after minister in the presidency Jackson Mthembu, who was chairing the briefing, seemed to say that such visits were allowed. However, he said that if a “need has arisen”.

“The way the regulations and directions stand now is that we can visit our family in the neighbourhood. The problem is where we must go beyond the province where we live, or the district and the metro where we live. For the purpose of visiting our families if there is a need, yet we can still get permits to go and visit our families if whatever need has arisen for us to visit them,” said Mthembu.

“We are not living in normal times. These are not normal times. These are Covid-19 times, where we need to take every precaution to save ourselves from infections and also to ensure that we also don’t become infectors ourselves. I think what my colleagues have said, ultimately, we must all adapt to these times. It cannot only be a government regulation and government directions that will guide our behaviour,” he said.

Regulation 33 states that people may move about under the following conditions:

• Perform any service allowed under level 3;
• Travel to and from work;
• Buy permitted good and services;
• Move children, as allowed;
• Exercise between 6am and 6pm;
• Attend a place of worship; and
• Attend a school or learning institution, when these open.