The booze has a lot to do where the people live in townships in very close proximity to each other.
The corrugated houses have maybe 1 to 1.5 meters between them.
So there will always be the lack of social distancing. Then you have the shebeens (bar & booze sales) in the township which were ‘supposedly’ closed. Stopping the flow of booze should lead to less socialising (theory). Less domestic violence. Less road accidents.
However the black market smuggled and supplied. If you had the contacts then getting booze was not an issue.
The supermarkets, food stores etc. still traded but on essentials only. Toys, cosmetics, appliances were not essential. The booze section was emptied.
They are all busy restocking booze shelves for Monday.
We never had a shortage of meat, veg, bread etc. just have to watch the prices so that they don’t start profiteering.
Cigs were banned and still are. We have a large bunch of small-minded-1 brain cell-idiot-ministers who are trying to flex their non-existent muscles and score political points.
However, if you went to the local filling station, bought some fuel you could also buy cigs at twice the normal price, limited choice. All manufactured or imported illegally.
The effect on the economy is huge. All the excise tax on cigs & booze is a loss in billions, which will probably be recovered from the 4 million tax payers. (that is 4 out of 60)
The job losses resulting from the long level 5 lockdown is measured in 100k
The restaurants can only sell delivery or collect. A lot of small businesses will probably shut down when they are eventually allowed to open.
Our cleaner should be able to work from next week. We have continued to pay her wage for the one day per week she works for us. She has a couple of kids to support. She has a debit card so we do an EFT, lot safer than cash. We are aware of people who took the no-work no-pay route.
The brewer SAB-Miller were going to dump 400m bottles of beer as they could not move stock from the factory to satellite warehouses. The tanks were full and they could not bottle. Eventually after 4 weeks they could move stock. (first question I would have asked - who wanted to be bribed to provide the permits!)
From Monday we can exercise between 06:00 and 18:00 (it was 06:00 to 09:00 - it is winter and flipping cold for old people to do any walking!) Our clubhouse and facilities are still closed (gym and pools) library open 2 mornings per week.
It is masks and sanitizers as far as we go. The mask is a bit of an issue for me as I already have to sleep with one (CPAP machine).
Roll on Monday - some very nice dry white wine will go down well before-with-after dinner.
Can only drink at own home, not with friends.