On Thursday night, the Presidency announced a set of new lockdown rules just ahead of New Year’s Eve celebrations.
South Africa is now officially on a new Adjusted Alert Level 1 lockdown, and the rule changes also apply to churches, conference centres, sporting venues, and gyms.
The biggest change to the regulations is the dropping of the curfew, and all indoor gatherings are limited to 1 000 people.
Here are the new Adjusted Alert Level 1 regulations:
South Africa now has no cufew
The 23:00 closing time has been dropped for restaurants, bars, shebeens, theatres, churches, and gyms. The time was always set an hour before curfew so that staff could get home.
Thus, any faith-based gathering can now have midnight services again.
However, the only closing-time rules that are still applicable are those usually enforced by city bylaws, liquor licences, or other regulations.
Indoor gatherings can now host up to 1 000 people
The gathering restrictions have specifically been extended to conferences, gyms, and sporting venues.
Indoor gatherings: limit of 1 000 people – social distancing and face masks still applies
Outdoor gatherings: limit of 2 000 people – social distancing and face masks still applies
If any venue is too small to hold 1 000 people with social distancing, it is then limited to 50% of its usual capacity.
No drinking allowed on public beaches
With previous regulations, beaches, public parks, and casinos also had to close by 23:00. However, now members of the public are allowed to on the beach, for example, but still not allowed to drink.
Thus, even though some liquor rules have entirely been dropped, it remains illegal to drink in any public place that is not licensed to sell alcohol.
