[imagesource: Candice Botha]

Whilst many South Africans grapple with spending lockdown in cramped living conditions, without basic services and wondering where their next meal may come from, others face a different sort of challenge.

No, not a shortage of alcohol and cigarettes, because some bartering and drone deliveries can apparently alleviate that issue.

It’s not easy being a dog owner at present, knowing that your precious hound (or hounds) need outside exercise to remain sane, but the laws regarding jogging and dog walking during the lockdown have been clear from day one.

Flout those rules, and you could end up in a scenario like this woman in Three Anchor Bay, Cape Town, who was bust by police at around 10:15AM on Easter Sunday.

That picture above was taken by Candice Botha (it has been cropped – see her full image below) and shows a police officer giving chase as a woman walking her dog attempts to flee.

Botha spoke with TimesLIVE about what she witnessed outside her window:

“We went to the window to check if everything was OK.

“Three cop cars had pulled over with at least seven cops following a lady that was walking her dog. When we looked out, she was trying to walk away from them, saying something along the lines of ‘she lives right there and she’s just going to go home’.

“I think she was frightened by the number of police, and in her panic, she repeatedly tried to get away from them. One policewoman grabbed her shirt as she was trying to run away,” said Botha.

Here’s Botha’s image in full, showing her elevated vantage point:

Back to her account:

She said about half a dozen officers surrounded the woman and were trying to talk to her.

“She sat down on the ground and didn’t want to co-operate. Finally, she ran down the alleyway out of our line of sight and was followed by police on foot and in a van.

“We never saw the arrest, but after a few minutes, a police van came back about the corner with her sitting in the back,” said Botha.

According to SAPS spokesperson Brig Vish Naidoo, the 52-year-old woman was arrested and hit with a R1 500 fine for breaking lockdown laws.

It must have been her first offence, then, with Naidoo adding that he wasn’t sure whether or not the woman paid the fine, or chose to take the matter to court.

We all sympathise with dog owners, and the dogs themselves who may well be going stir crazy whilst cooped up at home, but these arrests and fines will continue for the duration of the lockdown.

The data tells us that our efforts are showing great results, so we need to ride this out, and give our healthcare workers and facilities the best chance of handling the spike in cases, which will almost certainly happen once our lockdown is ended.

[source:timeslive]