WATCH: From crowds in Alex to people still jogging, 21-day lockdown off to a rocky start

The 21-day lockdown period has apparently had a bumpy start as citizens adapt to new legislation announced by Cabinet as part of the national state of disaster declared by President Cyril Ramaphosa.

People have already been thrown into the back of police vans for not heeding Ramaphosa’s order of a lockdown at midnight.

Some of the issues many people around South Africa seem to have had include the following:

Transport

While Transport Minister Fikile Mbalula announced that minibus taxis and other e-hailing taxi services such as Uber and Bolt would only be allowed on the roads between 5am and 9am and 4pm and 8pm if they carry essential workers, it seems several people were left stranded in several parts of Johannesburg due to minimal public transport outflow.

The Reya Vaya bus system was flooded on Friday morning, as some commuters woke to the timed period of travel as announced by Mbalula.

Cape Town was no different as police urged some commuters who were headed to work that there were too many people that had gathered at one spot.

Mbalula took to Twitter to address an issue which had apparently arisen on Friday morning of some taxi drivers charging commuters extra to make up for the legally enforced requirement of vacant seats. An eight-seater vehicle is now only allowed to carry three people, and a four-seater only one.

In a tweet, he said he would engage with various members of the taxi unions in an attempt to address the issue.

Stockpiling

Long queues of shoppers were seen in Alexandra and other townships as locals disregarded both the order to minimise the number of people at a particular area and the 21-day lockdown order to stay at home as much as possible.

While some have questioned the timing of the country’s lockdown, which came before payday for some, the Alexandra community was flooding to shopping stores in an attempt to buy items.

Tembisa township was also among the list of townships that had people flocking to the shops.

‘Lawlessness’

From taxis operating during the national lockdown to some Pretoria locals going for a jog in the early hours of Friday morning, it seems law enforcement will have a major challenge to overcome in the first few days of the lockdown.

Homeless people across cities were being taken to different shelters to ensure they were adequately isolated during the outbreak of Covid-19.

Amid the bustle of Friday’s rush, scores of disgruntled workers reportedly gathered outside the department of labour in Port Elizabeth to submit UIF claim forms.

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