PRESIDENT Cyril Ramaphosa has extended the deployment of 20,000 SA National Defence Force (SANDF) members until the end of September to help enforce COVID-19 restrictions as the country reported its biggest single-day jump in coronavirus cases.
In his correspondence to the National Assembly Speaker Thandi Modise and Chairperson of the NCOP Amos Masondo, Ramaphosa said “the employment of 20 000 members of the SANDF for service in co-operation with the SA Police Service (SAPS) to maintain law and order, support other State departments and control our border lines to combat the spread of COVID-19 in all nine provinces”.
The extension of Operation Notlela will, according to Ramaphosa, cost the South African taxpayer R1.5 billion.
The military is also tasked to assist Dr Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma’s Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs) department in the government effort “to maintain or enhance the living conditions of South Africans” by, for example, water supply or engineering services.
Soldiers will continue to support police in enforcing lockdown regulations and they will also be utilised to provide additional border patrol with the SAS Military Health Service (SAMHS) boosting Port Health operations at official air, land and sea ports of entry.
(Compiled by Inside Politics staff)
