Policing the (post)colonial body: The Covid-19 lockdown in South Africa

Abstract

In March 2020, South Africa enacted one of the world’s most severe lockdowns to combat the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. Whilst this action received international praise, its implementation by the armed security forces in many ways mirrored colonial and apartheid-era controls on movement, such as violent policing and curfews. In this article, we explore former anti-apartheid activists’ experiences of the lockdown. We argue two points: lockdown policing triggered memories of state violence among apartheid survivors; and widespread support for the lockdown evidences the ways in which surveillance and the security state apparatus have become normalised in post-apartheid South Africa. We conclude by discussing alternatives to militarised policing during public health crises.