A Johannesburg man spent more than R20,000 on his favourite whisky and rum on the first day of the resumption of alcohol sales.

“I feel great today now that the ban has been lifted,” Gordan Human told TimesLIVE at Makro in Strubens Valley on a cloudy Tuesday morning.

Human’s trolley was packed with bottles of Bell's whisky and Red Heart rum, his favourite brands.

Human and three friends each contributed more than R6,000 to buy the alcohol. 

Their plan is to not come up short if the ban on sales is reinstated again. He said they had done the same thing when sales were reopened before.

Alcohol sales were banned at the start of lockdown in March, then resumed, only to be banned again in July, to the dismay of shoppers and suppliers.

“We buy stock together and then we share the bottles equally. We have always done it like this, so when the second peak in Covid-19 infections comes around we have stock.”

On Tuesday customers wasted no time stocking up on alcohol.

Shopper George Strong said he was “extremely happy” the alcohol ban had been lifted. He spent more than R2,000 on his whisky and vodka for his wife.

“I’m glad we are open again. I’m going to spend to make sure that if we close again, I have enough for a few weeks. I hope this is going to be enough.”

Ayanda Khumalo from OneCart, an online grocery store delivery service, said they had received 53 alcohol orders from customers around the Clearwater Mall area. Orders were mostly for beer, whisky, brandy and other spirits.

TimesLIVE