There are long queues of South Africans waiting outside bottle stores to purchase alcohol this morning.

This is because today is the first day of level 3 of the nationwide lockdown – which allows the sale of alcohol at certain times.

Alcohol is allowed to be sold from 09:00 until 17:00 from Monday to Thursday, and liquor stores told MyBroadband they were preparing for an influx of customers due to the lifting of the alcohol ban.

“We are anticipating heavy demand from 1 June and are ready to meet that with high levels of quality and service excellence, matched by high levels of hygiene and safety,” said TOPS at Spar.

Digital alcohol seller CyberCellar told MyBroadband that being a digital business has helped it considerably during the ban, and has meant that customers have been able to order their alcohol in advance.

“We are already dealing with the many pre-orders and will be ready for the busy opening of deliveries at level 3,” said Cybercellar.

Hundreds of people in queues

MyBroadband visited the Makro in Centurion at 08:30 today – 30 minutes before the store was allowed to sell alcohol – and the queues were already snaking through the parking lot.

There were between 200-300 people in the queue when we arrived.

However, it should be noted that social distancing was being maintained by those waiting in line to purchase their alcohol – making the queues appear incrediblly long.

In the 10 minutes we took photos of queue, it grew by about 50 metres.

Photos of the queues at Makro Centurion are below.

Makro Centurion

Pick n Pay Irene Village Mall