Staff Reporter
President Cyril Ramaphosa has announced a 21-day national lockdown with effect from midnight on Thursday this week in a bid to bring the COVID-19 pandemic under control.
During this period all South Africans are to stay at home while most businesses will be closed.
Only pharmacies, banks, fuel stations and grocers will remain open, the president said in a national televised address.
The army will be deployed to assist in implementing the measures, he said.
“From midnight on Thursday, 26 March, until midnight on Thursday, 16 April, all South Africans will have to stay at home,” Ramaphosa said, as he outlined his government’s response to the coronavirus pandemic.
Confirmed cases of the acute respiratory disease in South Africa now stand at 402, the highest on the continent.
“I have accordingly directed the South African National Defence Force be deployed to support the South African Police Service in ensuring that the measures we are announcing are implemented,” Ramaphosa said.