[imagesource: SAPS]

Are you even living in lockdown if you haven’t engaged in a touch of bootlegging, or swapped a bottle of wine for a box of smokes?

A carton around my neighbourhood was going for between R800 and R1 300 last time I checked – yeah, that’s where we’re at.

It’s all fun and games until you get hit with a massive fine, though, and the latest list of offences shows that you could be well out of pocket in your pursuit of booze and cigarettes.

Fail to adhere to the alert level 4 lockdown regulations under the Disaster Management Act, and you’re liable for fines that range between R1 000 and R5 000.

Let’s start with the R5 000 fines, with this via IOL:

•    disclosing information contained in the Covid-19 tracing database, or information obtained during contact tracing;

•    failure to “de-identify” or destroy information on the Covid-19 database six weeks after the state of disaster has ended;

•    making of intentional misrepresentation that any person is infected with Covid-19;

•    publishing of any statement to deceive any other person about Covid-19;

•    intentionally exposing another person to Covid-19;

•    the sale of liquor;

•    the sale of tobacco;

•    illegal gathering at public places; and

•    hindering a member of the police or SANDF from performing their duties.

Yes indeed, selling liquor or tobacco can lead to a R5 000 fine.

If only the “publishing of any statement to deceive any other person about COVID-19” rule extended to Facebook, where people I used to respect are falling over themselves sharing garbage like Plandemic.

Please, and I know this is asking a lot, do just the slightest bit of fact-checking before posting to social media or spamming WhatsApp. The only ‘sheeple’ here are those who are unwilling to engage in critical thinking beyond watching a YouTube video.

The sale of goods other than those mentioned above, which are currently banned under alert level 4, can result in a R2 000 fine.

You can also be fined R3 000 for failing to close a non-essential business.

A person will be liable for R1 000 fine if  they are outside their residence between 8pm and 5am and they are without a permit to perform essential work or permitted services or attending to a security or medical emergency or they fail to comply with the prohibition on movement between provinces.

You may also be hit with a R500 fine for exercising beyond a five-kilometre radius of your residence, or outside of exercise hours (6AM to 9AM).

You can use this handy tool to figure out that five-kilometre radius from your house.

[source:iol]