Parliament passes a law to clear people convicted of Covid-19 violations. Picture: Nardus Engelbrecht/African News Agency (ANA)
The National Assembly has passed a bill that will expunge criminal records of people who were convicted of breaching Covid-19 regulations during the implementation of the lockdown regulations.
The police had arrested over 400 000 people for violating lockdown regulations by 2021.
This was confirmed by Police Minister Bheki Cele when he released these figures at the time.
The Minister of Justice and Correctional Services, Ronald Lamola, tabled the Judicial Matters Amendment Bill in Parliament a few months ago to expunge criminal records of people who violated the Covid-19 lockdown regulations.
Almost all political parties with the exception of the EFF and Al-Jama-ah voted in support of the Judicial Matters Amendment Bill.
House chairperson Grace Borotho said the bill would now be sent to the National Council of Provinces for concurrence.
Chairperson of the National Assembly’s portfolio committee on justice and correctional services Bulelani Magwanishe said on Tuesday the adoption of the bill by the assembly would clear thousands of people who had been convicted of violating the Covid-19 regulations.
“The committee welcomed the insertion of new sections, 57(b), 57(c) and 57(d) into the Criminal Procedure Act of 1997. These provisions will assist to clear the names of those who earned criminal records after having paid admission of guilt fines for breaching Covid lockdown regulations. Section (57(b) proposes that the minister may declare that certain categories of offences do not result in a previous conviction against the accused and provides for the expungement of minor offences as well as certain offences committed in terms of the Disaster Management Act of 2002.
“The proposed section 57(c) provides for the expungement of criminal records of persons whose names appear in the records of the Criminal Record Centre after having paid admissions of guilt fines. The objective of the amendment is to provide for the automatic expungement of criminal records,” said Magwanishe.
President Cyril Ramaphosa had declared a national state of disaster in March 2020 when Covid-19 hit the country.
The Covid restrictions were only lifted by Ramaphosa in April last year.
This was after some opposition parties had also urged him to lift the state of disaster as it served no purpose at the time.
The opposition wanted businesses to function at full capacity.
Ramaphosa had said the state of disaster was a necessary measure to fight the disease.
But after two years he lifted it, saying this was a measure against the global health crisis, which had been able to prevent a disastrous situation.
siyabonga.mkhwanazi@inl.co.za
Politics