As the killing of George Floyd sparked protests worldwide, South Africans joined calls for action against police brutality following the deaths of at least 10 black people at the hands of law enforcement under a coronavirus lockdown. Thousands have attended Black Lives Matter demonstrations in Cape Town, Pretoria and Johannesburg to protest violence by security forces implementing the lockdown - and prior to the pandemic - directed mainly at poor, black communities.
"This brutality and violence is not at all new. What is new is that during this lockdown, a harsher spotlight has been shone on these abuses," said Thato Masiangoako, a researcher for the Socio-Economic Rights Institute of South Africa.
More than 42,000 complaints were made about the police between 2012 and 2019, including rape, killings and torture, according to the Independent Police Investigative Directorate (IPID), the police watchdog.
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