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President Cyril Ramaphosa had condemned the increase in violence against women and the vandalism of state property as the country enters its third week under lockdown.
"It is disturbing that during a time of such immense difficulty for our country, women and girls are being terrorised inside their own homes, forcing them to make desperate calls for help," Ramaphosa wrote in his weekly newsletter, four days after he extended the lockdown until the end of April.
He said the number of calls to the gender-based violence national command centre increased since the lockdown began on March 27, and police have so far arrested 148 suspects.
"We are aware that the restrictions that have been placed on people’s movement and the confinement to their homes are a frustration for many. But there is no excuse, nor will there ever be any excuse, for violence against women, children, the elderly, members of the LGBTQI+ community, foreign nationals, not against anyone."
Ramaphosa said the majority of South Africans were respecting the rules of the lockdown, as well as the rights of others, but some were "seeking to exploit this crisis for their own sinister ends".
The President said it was an indictment of South African society that schools were being torched during the lockdown and that Eskom has noted increasing vandalism of its infrastructure and an increase in cable theft.
"When the lockdown is lifted and learning resumes, thousands of our children will have no school to return to, depriving them of the right to education," he said.
The damage to Eskom's property has caused power cuts and will cost a considerable sum to repair.
"It is despicable that criminals are using this period of the lockdown as a cover to break the law at a time when our law-enforcement authorities are occupied with supporting the national effort to contain the pandemic."
Ramaphosa urged communities to report vandalism, saying if they failed to do so, they became “silent partners to sabotage.”
