Some children used the time off from school to play Photo by TK Mashaba
TK Mashaba
On 26 March this year it will mark 1 year since the beginning of level 5 shutdown that was introduced in South Africa and it affected all areas and all lives, with many losing their jobs, companies closing down; long queues at shops, banks and other official places where people generally need assistance.
People where only allowed to go out only for shopping under the different curfew times, these include essential workers.
We covered some of incidents on the street where homeless children were caught up in the mix because they didn’t understand the whole situation.
Most children enjoyed playing different games in front of their yards some playing with their school books learning by themselves when parent were at work.
On May 31 the country went on alert level four with infected cases rising and later on 1 June to 17 August the country went to level three and school children were allowed to go back to school, according to a scheduled attendance to control the numbers in class, and to top it off, these were not even all the grades.
18 August the county went to alert level three and most people were now going to work and the restrictions were eased.
21 September to 28 December the county went to level 1 and most social gatherings were allowed but within strict protocols.
Social gatherings set South Africans abuzz with lot of people crossing over from province to province with tourism also allowed to operate but within permitted numbers. Funerals attendance and religious gatherings were also allowed within certain protocols.
29 December the country went to alert level three which closed all social gatherings and banned of sale of alcohol.
A lot of people needed some alternative means of survival as most lost jobs and others lost loved ones who were also breadwinners at home, so and this has been a difficult time as the government is expecting to roll out vaccines in the coming months, and school children are expected to go back to school Monday 15 February after the date was moved from Wednesday 27 January due to the rise in infections.
In Bela-Bela, like other places, many people were arrested and fined after breaking government protocols by either not wearing masks or travelling after curfew time or be found in possession of alcohol.
