‘YOU CAN’T DRINK WITH A MASK ON’
Why party animals shun Covid regulations
“As for masks and social distancing, no, that never happens. And, yes, students do become reckless after drinking.”
Blackdoor Lounge manager Jared Balia denied that safety rules were not followed.
“It’s no mask, no entry. We put a reserve sign on every second table [for social distancing]. The photographs from Instagram are all from before lockdown,” he said.
A second manager, who gave his name only as Davis, said: “Our flier information specifically says ‘no mask, no entry’. Individuals are screened ... to comply with the regulations.”
Half an hour later the Facebook images were taken down. One of the posts had been tagged by a patron, who confirmed the videos and images he took were from the week before. He asked not to be named.
Another patron, who went with friends last week, said everyone had worn masks until they entered the premises.
She said there had been a previous event when the venue was “packed”, but she didn’t believe there was a risk [of getting Covid-19] because the space was so large.
Another woman said it was OK to take masks off inside because they went with groups of people they knew. “And you can’t drink with a mask on.”
A part-owner of Altitude Beach, Ricardo da Costa, said the club followed regulations.
“Altitude Beach is an open-air restaurant and is 3,200m², so in terms of space and social distancing we are not under pressure to find space, we have the space.
“I don’t think the regulations were actually done with a dry run or a trial to find out what makes sense from a human point of view. I’ll be honest with you, we are not
policing people. Like if they stand up and greet someone else, I’m not going to tell my six bouncers to go up to them and tell them to put on a mask.”
He said the dance floor remained closed and the club had a face-recognition machine to take people’s temperatures.
Ga-Rankuwa Shisanyama owner Trusty Lekhuleni said it adhered to safety regulations. “It’s very difficult for us to control peo
ple when they suddenly all get up and want to dance or get closer to the artist.”
He said that clubs and bars needed to bring in big-name artists to fill their establishments and try to make up for the losses they suffered during lockdown.
Prof Salim Abdool Karim, co-chair of the ministerial advisory committee on Covid-19, said a move to higher levels of lockdown was not off the table but would be a “last resort”.
He said many South Africans were not following the rules and he was concerned about travel in December.
He said a strong indicator of a Covid resurgence would be the proportion of tests that were positive.
“In the last three weeks it has been a narrow range between 8.3% and 8%. With the proportion of positive tests still at a lowlevel I am less concerned. We are not in a second wave at this point, but we may be seeing the beginnings of a resurgence.”
Health department spokesperson Popo Maja said a change in lockdown levels would be made “when community transmission has been established to a point where health-care service capacity becomes constrained within a geographical area”.
Maja said “several indicators” would be used to determine the government’s response to a resurgence.
The indicators included “the daily new Covid-19 cases, the testing rate per 100,000 population and the positivity rate, the number of active cases, current hospital admissions, as well as Covid-19 mortality”.
Several universities told the Sunday Times they had implemented curfews and temperature tests for students, as well as banning social gatherings on campus.