Deputy Minister of Justice and Correctional Services John Jeffery said they would like to see a process for expunging criminal record for admission of guilt fines for breaking lockdown rules.
This comes after Police Minister Bheki Cele revealed that 342,000 people have been arrested for violating the lockdown regulations since March last year.
Between 28 December 2020 and 7 January 2021, when the new level 3 lockdown rules kicked in, 20,116 people were arrested.
Most of the arrests over the last two weeks were related to alcohol offences or not wearing a mask.
Cele highlighted that it is now a criminal offence not to wear a mask in public and that 7,000 people have been arrested for this crime.
Justice Project South Africa chairman Howard Dembovsky highlighted that people who have been arrested and had their fingerprints taken will get a criminal record, independent of how minor the offence is.
A criminal record, Dembovsky said, will actively prevent you from gaining employment or getting a travel visa to many countries. This will endure for a period of 10 years.
He said the admission of guilt fines related to the lockdown regulations should be handled like speeding tickets, which don’t carry criminal records.
“These criminal records are enduring and there is no apparent reason why the Minister of Cooperative Governance, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, should declare these violations as criminal offences when she could have just as easily prescribed administrative fines for it,” Dembovsky said.
The government said it is concerned about the high number of people who are now stuck with criminal records, but its immediate focus is on fighting COVID-19.
Jeffery said at this stage, in the middle of the second wave, people must follow the lockdown regulations. “It is for our own good,” he said.
He added that there is value in criminal records at this stage because it keeps track of repeat offenders.
“The courts can now see if you become a serial offender. You can’t just each time pay the fine for breaking the curfew and the next time you are treated the same,” he said.
“With a criminal record, the court will see that a person is breaking the law more often and the penalties then should get steeper.
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Source: mybroadband
