Covid-19

The Jackboot

The Other Epidemic: An account of police and army violence in the Covid-19 pandemic

Illustrative image | sources: Minister of police General Bheki Cele (Photo: EPA-EFE/NIC BOTHMA / Soldiers in Umlazi township on April 09, 2020 in Durban, South Africa. (Photo: Darren Stewart/Gallo Images via Getty Images) / People gather at a food distribution centre in Diepsloot on May 08, 2020 in Diepsloot, South Africa. (Photo: Gallo Images / Dino Lloyd)
By Chanel Retief, Greg Nicolson and Ferial Haffajee
22 May 2020
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As police and soldier violence became an ugly by-product of the public health emergency lockdown during the Covid-19 outbreak, people used their phone cameras as a form of human rights documentation. This is the story of how the phone became the watchdog as human rights bodies failed to deal with the surge of security violence that began in March and continues today. (Click on the image to read the special feature)

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"Information pertaining to Covid-19, vaccines, how to control the spread of the virus and potential treatments is ever-changing. Under the South African Disaster Management Act Regulation 11(5)(c) it is prohibited to publish information through any medium with the intention to deceive people on government measures to address COVID-19. We are therefore disabling the comment section on this article in order to protect both the commenting member and ourselves from potential liability. Should you have additional information that you think we should know, please email [email protected]"

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