SCORES OF PEOPLE FLOCK TO MBABANE

MBABANE – The payday hype for some resulted in people flooding Mbabane town yesterday.

One would have sworn the partial lockdown had been lifted as many people flocked to the city like it was a normal day to do their shopping.
Some people were in queues in the different food retailers while others were walking up and down the streets.

Others had their masks on while others didn’t.
It was gathered that most of the people who were in town were mostly civil servants who had been paid for the month.  Also, unlike other partial lockdown days, yesterday, the city had a lot of traffic throughout the day.
Public transport, especially those referred to as ‘local’ had frequent movements in and out of town.

A few interviewed people stated that they had gone to town to do shopping as they had recently been paid.
One woman, who preferred to be identified as Nosihle, said she recently got paid hence she was in town to buy food for her children.
“We are still on partial lockdown but I bet people were just waiting to get paid to buy food judging by the huge number of shoppers who decided to come to town today,” she said.

She was of the view that she picked the wrong day to visit town.
While it was risky, a woman took her minor to town and was found queuing at one of the popular restaurants.
She claimed to have taken all the necessary precautions to ensure they were safe from the virus.

When asked if she knew the importance of staying home, she said she was aware of the precautionary measures while justifying that it was only for yesterday that she decided to step out of the house.
Meanwhile, other people were found sitting in groups without observing social distancing.

 When asked if they understood the importance of social distancing, the public responded to the affirmative. However, they claimed that they could not withstand the sun hence they relaxed behind public transport vehicles.

Asked why they were in town, some people failed to give convincing responses. Some claimed that they had been to pharmacies to buy medication and were quick to show their medication. Those boarding transport did not bother observing social distancing. Noted was that they were not sanitised as they boarded the public transport. Ideally, commuters should take it upon themselves to sanitise and keep social distancing when boarding public transport to minimise the spread of the virus.

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