{"id":2938,"date":"2021-09-04T08:24:31","date_gmt":"2021-09-04T08:24:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/panic-grips-lesotho"},"modified":"2021-09-04T08:24:31","modified_gmt":"2021-09-04T08:24:31","slug":"panic-grips-lesotho","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/panic-grips-lesotho","title":{"rendered":"Panic grips Lesotho"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/\">Africa-Press<\/a> &#8211; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\">Lesotho<\/a>. <\/strong><\/span>THERE was panic in Lesotho after South Africa\u2019s President Cyril Ramaphosa on Tuesday announced a 21-day lockdown that begins at midnight tonight. Thousands of Basotho were in a stampede to cross into South Africa yesterday to run urgent errands before the lockdown began.<\/p>\n<p>There were long queues at the border. \u2019Makotelo Mosia* told thepost that she was travelling to Ladybrand to see her doctor before the lockdown began. \u201cI was supposed to go there next week \u2026 but with this lockdown I think I should just go,\u201d Mosia said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t even know if I will be able to see the doctor today. It looks like everyone is rushing somewhere and I have been here for almost two hours.<\/p>\n<p>Mareabetsoe Mantsoe said she was going to Ladybrand to fix her banking issues.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe don\u2019t know how the lockdown will turn out. It may be longer than the proposed 21 days and in that time I need to be able to transact,\u201d Mantsoe said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are not sure we will be allowed to cross once it starts.<\/p>\n<p>Puseletso Pheko who has been a street vendor for more than 20 years at the Maseru Bridge said he has never witnessed such traffic without having buyers.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe think people are panicking because of this virus, they just want to get to wherever they are going,\u201d Pheko said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBusiness is bad, we are also scared but we have to put food on the table,\u201d she said. In supermarkets such as Pick \u2018n Pay food shelves were mostly fully stocked, with empty ones being restocked as consumers continued to shop.<\/p>\n<p>Sam Mphana, Manager of Pick \u2019n Pay Lesotho, said they had seen an increase in customers buying groceries. He however said everyone was buying what they needed and not stock piling.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cRight now people are buying like it is monthend even though it is not monthend yet,\u201d Mphana said. The supermarket has put in place hand sanitizers so that every customer can be able to clean their hands before they start shopping.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are trying to avoid the spread (of Coronavirus) by having everyone sanitize their hands so that even if you happen to take an item and later choose to leave it behind at least you did so with clean hands,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>In addition staff were sanitizing their hands every morning when they come into the supermarket and throughout the day. Those working at the tills were also sanitizing their hands after every transaction. Mphana said at the moment they are still placing orders as normal and are assuming that stock will continue to come from South Africa.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt is true we heard the President of South Africa announce a lockdown but he also said that significant industries like those of food production will still be open, so we are hoping that we will receive the ordered stock.<\/p>\n<p>\u201d<br \/>\nMost shelves were still full in Pick \u2019n Pay on Tuesday and those that were empty were being restocked.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe empty shelves are a result of the past weekend, we receive stock on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.<\/p>\n<p>\u201d<br \/>\nPitso Melao, the Regional Manager of Shoprite Lesotho, said they had put in place measures to avoid panic buying.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe have given a directive as per our policy that no customer should buy more than three items of the same product but if push comes to shove then we will say one item per customer,\u201d Melao said.<\/p>\n<p>Melao also thinks that they will still get orders that they have placed as no supplier has told them that they will not be able to deliver the ordered goods.<\/p>\n<p>Shoprite has introduced marked spots to enable customers to stand a meter apart to avoid the spread of Coronavirus. However the problem is that some still stand close to each other.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are spot on in terms of ensuring hygiene, we have sanitizers for shoppers, trolley cleaners and our till staff also clean their hands before assisting customers,\u201d Melao said.<\/p>\n<p>The president of the Lesotho Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI), Ntaote Seboka, says the informal, transport and maybe the retail sectors will be badly affected during the 21 day lockdown in South Africa as there will be restricted movement.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe think that the manufacturing sector will close on Friday due to inadequate supplies and as a precautionary measure to avoid the spread of the virus,\u201d Seboka said.<\/p>\n<p>He said even if Lesotho does not propose a lock down the fact that it is landlocked by South Africa means the country will also be effectively under one.<\/p>\n<p>(See story on Page 1)<br \/>\nHe said as business they are also trying to prevent the spread of the virus by promoting good hygiene practices.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe acknowledged that this is a tough period, if you look anywhere in the world the impact of this virus on business is terrible,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHowever, as business and part of society we have to stand firm and actively participate in this fight.<\/p>\n<p>\u201d<br \/>\n\u201cIf we have to close we will because the lives of Basotho come first, after all we need people working in our businesses.<\/p>\n<p>\u201d<br \/>\n* Not her real name<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; Lesotho. THERE was panic in Lesotho after South Africa\u2019s President Cyril Ramaphosa on Tuesday announced a 21-day lockdown that begins at midnight tonight. Thousands of Basotho were in a stampede to cross into South Africa yesterday to run urgent errands before the lockdown began. There were long queues at the border. \u2019Makotelo Mosia* [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":2937,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,3,8,16],"tags":[233,246,245,397],"class_list":["post-2938","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-community","category-homepage-english","category-twitter","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-lesotho","tag-lesotho","tag-panic"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Panic grips Lesotho - Lesotho<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/panic-grips-lesotho\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Panic grips Lesotho\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Africa-Press &#8211; Lesotho. THERE was panic in Lesotho after South Africa\u2019s President Cyril Ramaphosa on Tuesday announced a 21-day lockdown that begins at midnight tonight. Thousands of Basotho were in a stampede to cross into South Africa yesterday to run urgent errands before the lockdown began. There were long queues at the border. \u2019Makotelo Mosia* [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/panic-grips-lesotho\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Lesotho\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-09-04T08:24:31+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2021\/09\/img-61333611a7512.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1900\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"700\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/panic-grips-lesotho#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/panic-grips-lesotho\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Panic grips Lesotho\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-09-04T08:24:31+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/panic-grips-lesotho\"},\"wordCount\":856,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/panic-grips-lesotho#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2021\/09\/img-61333611a7512.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Lesotho\",\"Lesotho\",\"Panic\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"community\",\"homepage-english\",\"twitter\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/panic-grips-lesotho#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/panic-grips-lesotho\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/panic-grips-lesotho\",\"name\":\"Panic grips Lesotho - 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