COVID-19: South Africa To Deploy 73,000 Soldiers To Enforce Lockdown

Streets in South Africa will be seeing a heavy presence of security officers, as the President, Cyril Ramaphosa intends to dispatch over 73,000 more troops to ensure that the nationwide lockdown is enforced.

Southe Africa has been on a lockdown for four weeks, with the police and military ensuring that the citizens adhere to the guidelines of the lockdown.

A member of the opposition party in the country tweeted a letter sent to parliament by Ramaphosa who declared his intention to deploy an extra 73,180 officers of the South African National Defence Force until June 26.

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The deployment of troops on the streets will set South Africa back by 4.5 billion rand ($2.4 million).

The first set of soldiers deployed in March were 2,820.

According to the Minister of Defence, Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula, “If you look at the numbers and the rate at which the infection has gone up, you will realise that at some point we may actually need the kind of human deployment which has never been seen before.

“We need to tighten and foresee (and) make sure that our people understand fully the dangers of getting this virus,” she said, adding that soldiers were also deployed to assist the public and medical personnel.

“People need to understand that the laws and regulations… have been put in place to protect them.”

South Africa currently has a total of 3,465 coronavirus cases second-highest on the continent, behind Egypt.