BULAWAYO – Zimbabwe’s 21-day “total lockdown” to contain the spread of coronavirus threatened to unravel on Thursday as thousands of people queued outside supermarkets looking to buy the scarce staple maize meal.

Police said 485 people had been arrested countrywide on Thursday, as public anger grew over food shortages in suburban shops which was forcing people to throng big supermarkets in town centres.

The government ordered millers to deliver maize meal only to suburban shops, but this has not materialised, particularly in the second city of Bulawayo which accounted for most of Thursday’s arrests.

“The mealie-meal is in short supply. The queues are too long in the suburbs, and they don’t want to accept EcoCash so that’s why I had to come to down,” said Cecilia Ncube, a resident of Nketa suburb in Bulawayo who paid a $200 fine after being rounded up with dozens of others.

Police drove around Bulawayo streets speaking through loudhailers, urging people to return to their homes.

Government regulations published before the lockdown allow Zimbabweans to go to shops within a five-kilometre radius from their home – but many are finding it difficult to comply.

Those who want to travel beyond the stipulated radius must obtain a police clearance letter, which allows them to travel on public buses which are still on the road.

The letter did not help Cowdray Park resident Tawanda Muchehiwa, who said he was badly beaten with about seven others before being bundled into a police truck which drove them to the Bulawayo Central Police Station.

“The police were saying, ‘asifundanga (we are uneducated), we don’t know how to read so we don’t need to see your pass’,” Muchehiwa said. He was arrested at 11AM and only freed after 4PM when a relative turned up with cash to pay his $200 fine. The police station does not take EcoCash payments – the popular and most accessible payment method in Zimbabwe.

Ticking time-bomb … A police truck disgorges scores of people arrested in the Bulawayo city centre at the main police station, disregarding public health advice on social distancing

The lockdown was imposed to stop Zimbabweans from crowded spaces where the coronavirus can spread much more rapidly – but Muchehiwa said they were “herded like goats” into the police station. Police officers showed little regard for their own health, making the arrests without any protective gear to stop them from being infected.

Police spokesman Paul Nyathi said: “Many of those arrested violated the lockdown rules, but we also have cases of people committing traffic offences and some operating shebeens (illegal liquor outlets).

“We are saying people should just comply, there is no need for people to play with their health. There is no need for the people to disregard measures that have been put by the government so that the nation will be able to contain Covid-19.”

Nyathi said the police hierarchy was concerned about the potential exposure of officers to coronavirus, and steps were being taken in particular to enforce social distancing health advice.

“This includes reviewing how we transport and move suspects from one point to another or to police stations,” he said.

Police announced on Thursday that they had banned the sale of alcohol, which they say is fuelling most of the public disobedience.

“The lockdown measures clearly stated that there will be no sale of alcohol at any point in places like bottle stores and supermarkets. This comes as we have realised that people who buy alcohol at supermarkets are giving us challenges. They buy and drink as groups be it either in their vehicles or places of residence, thereby disobeying social distancing directives,” Nyathi said.

“Action will be taken on all those who will defy the order and sell alcohol at any bases.”

President Emmerson Mnangagwa has so far held back from deploying soldiers onto the streets, although his aides say the option remains on the table if the police get overwhelmed.