Joggers, newlyweds among those reported for breaking lockdown laws

Joggers, people braaiing and even newlyweds are among those being reported on for breaking the lockdown laws.

A wedding in Nkandla in northern KwaZulu-Natal landed school principal Jabulani Zulu, 48, and his fiancée Nomthandazo Mkhize, 38, in trouble.

The two were married and jailed on the same day, then released on R1,000 bail each. Neither could be reached for comment.

Nkandla mayor Thami Ntuli said he was told a member of the public alerted police.

Another told the Sunday Times he had reported his neighbours for jogging in groups, cycling and even holding braais on their sidewalks. He said reporting them to the police was the right thing to do.

He had submitted photographs of his neighbours in the Midstream Estate in Midrand, near Johannesburg, to the homeowners' association, local police and the local ward councillor.

“We cannot have social ill discipline when people's lives are at stake,” said the resident, who did not wish to be named. “South Africans appear to be taking the pandemic way too lightly without realising that we could have significant consequences to both life and our economy.

“Both my wife and I have compromised immune systems, me more than her. My physician has warned that the probability of me dying, should I become infected, is quite high, so I have been in lockdown for 11 days already and my wife for eight days.”

He said that as a businessman he would also be ruined financially if the lockdown was extended because the virus had not been contained as a result of people having no respect for the law.

People living in the Midstream Estate have been informed about restrictions in the area, according to the estate forum's chair, Jan Zeederberg. He said he'd cleared up confusion about whether open areas were an extension of residences. About 6,000 families live in the area of about 1,200ha.

A Durban woman who was reported said she had been surprised that her movements were being watched. She had posted a video on Facebook of her feeding 10 homeless people in Chatsworth, south of Durban.

“A day later, I received a call from a police officer informing me that I had violated the restrictions. I apologised and I accept that I was wrong, but I couldn't just let those people go hungry,” she said.

“The police told me that they will accompany me when I feed the poor families in the community daily and I even had charity organisations, with permits, invite me to work with them.”