Krugersdorpers, please don’t panic-buy – you will be okay!
During this time, citizens are asked to act kindly and with restraint. Today, lines stretch far down the road as people, in fear of missing out, clear out shop shelves, hoarding essential items.
We all understand the concerns surrounding the national lockdown, as announced by President Ramaphosa on 23 March.
The public is worried and uncertain. In these tough times, we need not only to care for ourselves, but to look after our fellow man, even if it is from a safe distance.
There are only a couple of days left until the country is largely shut down, and people are currently flocking to the streets, clearing out store shelves in fear that they will not have enough food and basic essential items to get through the month. One person panic-buying leads to another person doing the same in fear of missing out. Soon it spirals until the stores can no longer keep up with stocking their shelves.
The problem comes in for those who cannot afford to panic-buy. Many households, with children, parents and the elderly to care for, live from pay-cheque to pay-cheque, and do not have the means to go out right now to stock up on months’ worth of supplies for the coming 21 days. Only when they receive their salaries, wages or grants at the end of the month, be it on 25th or 31st of March or the like, they can go out to buy their month’s groceries. By then it might be too late, and the shops might be without life-sustaining items.
The News recently spoke to the mother of a new-born baby, and she noted that for a couple of weeks now she has been unable to find baby medication on the shelves, adding that if it continues, the chances of finding what she needs to care for her child look slim.
On Tuesday, 24 March, queues of worried shoppers lined the entrances to various grocery stores. At some locations the roads were backed up for a few hundred metres as people tried to enter shopping centres’ parking lots.
In the end, the main crisis this virus brings about may be how people react and treat others in their scurry to hoard food and other items. The public is asked to buy only what they need for this 21 day period, and to keep in mind that grocery stores will remain open during the national lockdown. This lockdown is meant to minimise the number of people on the streets, not to bring the country to a complete halt. We will get through this, and South Africa’s citizens will be cared for.
