15 545 lockdown violators arrested

By Andile Tshuma

Bulawayo continues to top the number of people arrested for lockdown defiance with a total of 3 775 people having been arrested in the city since the commencement of the lockdown period on March 30.

A total of 15 545 people had been arrested countrywide by late afternoon yesterday for violating Covid-19 stay-at-home regulations.

Statistics obtained from the Police General Headquarters show that Manicaland follows Bulawayo closely with 3 137 arrests followed by Harare with 1 973.

In Midlands 1 693 people have been arrested while in Mashonaland West Province 1 396 people were arrested. In Masvingo 649 people were arrested while 530 were arrested in Mashonaland Central.

Matabeleland South has recorded 1 057 arrests while Matabeleland North province has 733. In Mashonaland East Province 549 people have been arrested while the Support Unit separately arrested 107 people countrywide.

A tour by a Chronicle news crew in Bulawayo yesterday showed that it was almost business as usual for most people.

People were not practising social distancing in bank and supermarket queues, while there was a lot of vehicular traffic in the central business district.

In residential areas, people moved about as normal and the numbers of people on the roads have increased. More vendors have gone back to their selling points while a lot of people are killing time drinking with friends at shopping centres.

In an interview, national police spokesperson Assistant Commissioner Paul Nyathi said police were concerned with continued violation of lockdown orders and said the attitude from most people showed that they were more concerned about evading arrest than staying safe from Covid-19.

“People are more preoccupied about finding the feeder roads that help them to evade road blocks and find ways into the CBD and just move about the city.

This is worrying because people must be now worried about the virus and they must be staying at home,” said Assistant Commissioner Nyathi.

“We are also having problems with vehicles moving a lot at night, and pirate taxis also continue to operate, despite the arrests that are being made across the country.” The Chronicle