IN PICTURES | Deserted as SA enters a 21-day lockdown
Normally busy streets across SA were empty when midnight tolled on Thursday, and they still echoed to the sound of silence when dawn broke on the three-week Covid-19 lockdown on Friday.
The Nelson Mandela Bridge in Braamfontein is uncharacteristically quiet as the lockdown begins. (Alon Skuy)
In 1965, when US soul musician Wilson Pickett wrote the lyrics "I'm gonna wait 'till the midnight hour, When there's no one else around", he couldn't have imagined what would happen at midnight 55 years later when entire countries went into lockdown amid a worldwide public health crisis.
The National Sea Rescue Institute has warned the public to be cautious at beaches after two men drowned in Port Elizabeth. (Euegene Coetzee)
Normally busy streets across SA were empty when midnight tolled on Thursday, and they still echoed to the sound of silence when dawn broke on the three-week Covid-19 lockdown on Friday.
Not a soul in sight at Cape Town's Bo-Kaap as lockdown began at midnight. (Esa Alexander)
The streets of Bloemfontein were deserted shortly after midnight as the 21 day lockdown began. (Sebabatso Mosamo)
A man walks past a building in Cape Town covered with a poster aimed at limiting the spread of Covid-19. (Reuters)
The normally busy Long Street in Cape Town, known for its nightclubs and restaurants, pictured here at midnight when the lockdown began. (Esa Alexander)
Sunday Times photographers were there to experience the great shutdown.
