It’s actually really, really, simple, but some South Africans just think they’re above the law.

When you leave the house, you must wear a face mask.

If you want to get technical, the exact wording, taken from the government gazette, is that “a person must wear a cloth face mask or a homemade item that covers the nose and mouth when in a public place, or another appropriate item to cover the nose and mouth”.

Then there’s this, which is just as important to what happened below, again from the government gazette – “no person will be allowed to use any form of public transport, or enter a building, place or premises if they do not wear a cloth face mask or a homemade item that covers the nose and mouth when in a public place, or another appropriate item to cover the nose and mouth”.

Friends, face masks work, whether or not you’re showing symptoms, and it’s such a small price to pay to ensure you’re greatly reducing the chance of infecting somebody else with COVID-19.

(As for those exercising, whether that’s a jog or on a bike or whatever, you’re not exempt from wearing a mask, either. If you can’t be bothered to wear a face mask, or a buff, then suffer the ignominy of wearing ‘the Welder’.)

Yet, time and time again, folks they’re above the law, and we see incidents like this.

Much like the dagga activist brawl from a few weeks back, the issue below starts when a security guard confronts a woman at the Garden Route Mall in George, insisting she wears a face mask.

That would be a security guard just doing his job, and then bang, he gets dive-tackled by some bloke who clearly peaked in high school, and wants to relive his glory days.

The incident occurred last Thursday.

Observe:

If that video above is taken down, you can watch it here.

The security guard has now laid a charge of assault against the man who tackled him, reports TimesLIVE:

Mall management said police will conduct their investigation, as it had dealt a month ago with another case, where a member of the public was arrested for assault and being in contravention of the Disaster Management Act, by not wearing a mask when he entered the mall.

In a statement released on Saturday, the mall said it condemned any form of violence on its premises.

It said the matter was in the hands of the police.

The security guard returned to work yesterday, the man has been banned from the mall during the police investigation, and Owen Farrell is said to be taking notes regarding the use of arms in the tackle.

South Africa now has 1 480 confirmed COVID-19 deaths, 70 038 cases, and 38 531 recoveries – now is not the time to be taking chances.

[source:timeslive]