As of 1 February, failing to wear a mask in public is a direct criminal offence in South Africa, which could come with up to six months in jail.
That represents a significant escalation in the seriousness with which mask-wearing is treated in SA, so much so that the government did not want to take the step, according to co-operative governance and traditional affairs minister Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma.
Yet the change was through such a subtle update to disaster regulations that it went unnoticed, and it went unannounced until Dlamini Zuma filed an affidavit to argue that a restriction on the sale of alcohol had been necessary.
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