Coronavirus: South Africa to deploy 70,000 troops to enforce lockdown after ‘delivery trucks attacked and ransacked’

Security forces struggle to control lockdown, which has left many people without wages

More than 70,000 troops will be deployed in South Africa to help police enforce a stringent lockdown to slow the spread of coronavirus, the country’s president has said.

Cyril Ramaphosa said in a letter to parliament that the additional soldiers were necessary because the number of Covid-19 cases in the country was still increasing.

Nearly 3,000 troops were initially deployed in March to help maintain law and order in South Africa, which has more than 3,500 confirmed cases of the virus and 65 deaths, as of Thursday afternoon.

Security forces have struggled to enforce its strict lockdown, which began on 27 March and has left many people without wages and short of supplies.

On Thursday, city authorities in Cape Town said crowds had launched a string of attacks on delivery trucks, in which vehicles were stoned, hijacked and ransacked in an attempt to take food and other provisions.

“Even this morning, after midnight last night I had calls from residents saying people are putting bricks on the road to intercept trucks,” JP Smith, mayoral committee member for safety and security, told Reuters.

The city council said it had seen a surge in looting since the lockdown started, some involving criminals taking advantage of the crisis.

Only essential workers, such as those in the health service, have been allowed to leave home for work since March and South Africans have been banned from jogging outside, dog-walking and leaving their homes, except for essential trips such as hospital visits and food shopping,

Although the lockdown is due to expire on 30 April, there are fears it could be extended.

According to a draft government presentation seen by Reuters, the South African government is considering introducing flexible restrictions on economic activity as it phases out its lockdown

The presentation referred to an “alert system” comprising five levels that would identify which sectors are allowed to operate under different risk scenarios and enable the government to alter restrictions swiftly for different parts of the country.

It also warned there were “serious risks associated with lifting lockdown restrictions too soon, or in an unsystematic and disorderly manner”.

Gatherings will be limited to 10 people outside of a workplace and restaurants, hotels, bars and entertainment venues will remain shut after the lockdown ends, the document said.

A spokesperson for Mr Ramaphosa said the document was authentic but it did not represent the government’s final plan, which is expected to be announced on Thursday.

Africa has registered a 43 per cent jump in reported Covid-19 cases in the last week, highlighting concerns by the World Health Organisation (WHO) that the continent could become the next epicentre of the pandemic.

John Nkengasong, director of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (ACDC), has warned the continent has a “very, very limited” and “very, very strained” testing capacity, which means the surge in infections could be higher than the reported figure.

The organisation has a target of conducting one million more tests in Africa over the next four weeks and 10 million tests in the next four months, but efforts have been hampered by the existing fragility in the health services of many African countries.

“It is an uphill battle to build health systems while you need them ... That is what we are actually doing now,” Mr Nkengasong said.

“We are playing catch-up and that is a very, very tough thing to do.”

A recent WHO report warned Covid-19 could kill more than 300,000 people in Africa and push 30 million into desperate poverty.

Additional reporting by agencies