Shopping malls and grant payment points were very busy on the second day of grant payments to the elderly and people with disabilities in the Eastern Cape – but it was the cash machines at the malls that really gave the premier of the province a fright.

Premier Oscar Mabuyane visited shopping malls in Motherwell in Nelson Mandela Bay on Tuesday morning. The metro currently has the highest number of infections in the province with 385 positive cases as of May 4. Other regions in the province with high infection rates are Buffalo City with 176 cases, and the Chris Hani district (from Cradock to Queenstown/Komani) with 117 cases. Smaller rural regions in the province have also registered a few cases.

During grant payments in April, there were not many signs of personal distancing at Nelson Mandela Bay’s shopping malls as anxious people rushed to get their money and buy what they could. Grant beneficiaries are also allowed to withdraw cash from ATMs.

Mabuyane said on Monday that the province’s fight against rising coronavirus infections was giving him nightmares.

“Let me commend the work that is being done by the centre manager to try his level best to manage the situation and to keep personal distancing between customers. The volumes are very high.” 

“I have picked up that banks are not sanitising their ATMs. Person after person is using it without it being sanitised. It is a serious risk. I want to call on all banks to sanitise their ATMs. There must be someone there to do it. Even if they ask the security guard,” he said.

“If one person comes in here who is already infected and presses the keyboard, what happens to the other people who are behind him in the line? It is quite scary.” 

Mabuyane said that from what he had observed, he was satisfied that people were trying to stick to the rules. “Nobody is unruly. People are trying. We have to work together.” 

He added that as the provincial government they will leave “no stone unturned” to fight the virus.  

“I want to see the banks also going the extra mile,” he said. MC