South Africans struggled to adapt to new confinement rules yesterday, with many city streets no less crowded than normal as a strict lockdown regime took effect and the country recorded its first coronavirus deaths.
The 21-day lockdown came into force at midnight. It restricts people to their homes for most activities including exercise, only permitting excursions for buying food or health emergencies.
With shops, restaurants and offices shuttered and the number of confirmed domestic coronavirus cases rising above 1,000, streets in affluent parts of Johannesburg appeared quieter than usual.
No buses ran and some staff of supermarkets that remained open hitched a ride to work in police cars.
But large crowds continued to gather in nearby Alexandra and other poor townships, where cramped conditions militate against social distancing and offer a rich breeding ground for the virus among people reliant on an ailing public health system.
Many are also too poor to weather the associated economic fallout.
“I don’t have money, now I am thinking what should I do? Because of this I will be stuck in the house with my babies and everyone and my wife,” street vendor Godfrey Thula told Reuters in downtown Johannesburg.
The country’s first two deaths from the virus both occurred in Western Cape, 1,000 kilometres to the southwest, while total cases rose above 1,000 from 927 on Thursday, the health ministry said.
The cases include a German, who was detained and quarantined along with 59 other members of a tour group as they tried to leave the country, government news agency SABA reported.
Africa’s most industrialised nation is an epicentre of the outbreak on a continent where more than 3,200 people have been infected overall, of whom 84 have died.
The lockdown ordered by President Cyril Ramaphosa, who took a virus test that came back negative on Wednesday, is among Africa’s strictest, empowering the government to call out the army to enforce it and making the deliberate dissemination of false information a criminal offence. But enforcing the restrictions will be a challenge of the kind that authorities in some other African countries are already compromising on.
In Congo’s capital Kinshasa, 10mn people will go under lockdown today, but the scheme will be relaxed for 48 hours after just four days.
Yesterday, in one part of downtown Johannesburg close to the city’s townships, Reuters saw police sweep up 300 homeless people to take them to a shelter while crowds gathered to try to buy groceries or just walk down the streets.
In Alexandra, local broadcaster eNCA showed pictures of bustling streets and long queues outside supermarkets.
Ramaphosa on Thursday lobbied richer countries to help cushion the blow to Africa from a pandemic has killed over 21,000 people globally and devastated supply chains.
Already struggling, South Africa’s economy appears particularly vulnerable to its effects. Its rand lost 1.3% against the dollar following the news of the rise in cases and first deaths.
Even before the coronavirus, South Africa was mired in recession caused mostly by power cuts at its dysfunctional state-run utility, Eskom.
Mining companies, the core of its economy, are either cutting or shutting production, although platinum group metal output will continue.
South Africa’s airports and ports are also shut, interrupting global copper supplies. State logistics firm Transnet said yesterday it would scale down non-essential cargo operations.
The central bank launched a bond-buying scheme this week to try to revive a moribund credit market, while Ramaphosa announced measures aimed at helping small businesses..
But unemployment is at a decade high of some 30%, and ailing state companies have already bled billions of rand from the treasury.
A South African Metro policeman tries to enforce distancing outside a supermarket in Hillbrow, Johannesburg, yesterday, where several dozens of customers are queuing for food without respecting the minimum safety distance.
