Minister of Justice and Correctional Services Ronald Lamola says that it is now a criminal offence to not wear a mask in a public space in South Africa – but the liability lies with ‘compliance officers’, for now.<\/p>\n
Speaking in a ministerial media briefing on Monday (13 July), Lamola said that government has taken steps to criminalise the offence as a large number of people still fault to wear masks in taxis and while shopping.<\/p>\n
“It has made the lives of members of the public difficult including law enforcement officers’ lives very difficult if people are not wearing a mask in a particular place.”<\/p>\n
“(The new regulations) as they stand do not differentiate between a fine and imprisonment. Both of them do give you some kind of criminal offence,” he said.<\/p>\n
While this seems to imply that people who fail to wear masks will attract a criminal offence, the new lockdown directive<\/a> <\/strong>published on Sunday indicates that the duty of enforcement still lies with compliance officers<\/strong>.<\/p>\n The directive indicates that any employer, manager or owner<\/strong> of a building used by the public to obtain goods or services, will be responsible if any person enters and remains in such building, place or premises, without wearing a mask.<\/p>\n The penalty, should they not take all reasonable measures to ensure masks are worn, is a fine or imprisonment for a period not exceeding six months or to both such fine and imprisonment. This penalty is now contained in regulation 14(5) of the regulations.<\/p>\n However, Lamola said if public behaviour does not improve, the cabinet will consider imposing \u201cthe issue of criminality for individuals\u201d.<\/p>\n