After President Cyril Ramaphosa’s national address on Sunday evening, the shelves have been cleaned out within 24 hours, as residents who went shopping on Monday complained of mass hysteria under shoppers.

Mr Koos Kleinsmith from De Voetpadkloof, described the local shopping outlets as chaotic, after battling to get hold of basic goods as he watched shoppers stock up on non-perishable foods and disinfectant materials.

Mr Kleinsmith accounted that products like hand sanitising soaps and dust masks are nowhere to be found as he watched one lady load her trolley with left-over stocks.

During their search for disinfectant materials, it became evident that retailers are taking advantage of the COVID-19 outbreak to charge exorbitant prices on products in demand.

Mr Barry Strampfer, who visited a local chemical store, also complained of being charged twice as much for the same product as the shopper before him.

“I watched the manager of the store charge me R300 for the same product as the shopper before me, who only paid R190. When I disputed the price, the manager marked it down to R250, saying that the previous shopper took the last order of old stock.”

Mike Tammadge, manager at the Middelburg Mall, however, says that “shoppers are better behaved than the rest of South Africa”.

Mr Tammadge explained that although hand sanitisers and alcohol-based disinfectants are sold out, the Middelburg Mall has not experienced a frenzy under shoppers.

“Out of curiosity, we compared our daily shopping traffic to the statistics of last year and we actually had more shoppers on 16 March last year than on Monday.”