Covid19 Lockdown Diary -Makhuduthamaga

08 April 2020
Jane furse plaza in Makhuduthamaga Local Municipality.
By Mmabore Mogashoa

There were only few taxis and cars on the road. No customer cars are allowed to park inside and most of the cars were parked on the outside parking. I also saw police officers and traffic officers. The plaza have two gates, one was used as entrance and another as exit. Security is at the gates to see that people are safe. You are hand sprayed with sanitiser at the gate and also when you enter the shops or banks.

There was also no queues to the ATMs, only if you are going to the tellers or enquiry. There are markings to show where people should stand to maintain the required distance and also on the benches inside the bank. There are also posters about preventing corona virus on the walls ,doors inside public toilets and the ones that are written ‘children are not allowed unless you are breast feeding’

People are worried, you can hear when they are talking about the lockdown. One man said “After 21 days what will happen? Will they say everything is ok? Will things be back to normal?” Some stores put letters to notify customers that they will be closed and their contact numbers. Food store queues are very long but people are maintaining the distance and workers from the shops comes and checks if people are standing in the right positions.

 Elderly people were taken out of the queues to the shops which is a good thing to do. I also saw few trucks delivering to the stores. People are also selling fruits, vegetables, tobacco, salt and other food outside the gates. There is one shop on the main road that gives customers wipes to use as masks and most of the people are not wearing masks.

 The only problem is people take off the masks and put them back. Another problem is people who are done shopping had to sit down at the taxi rank with their groceries waiting for taxis to come in the evening. If there were taxis maybe after 12/13h00 (Taxis in the morning, after 12h00 and 16h00) the number of the people at Plaza will be less. By Mmabore Mogashoa