South Africa is facing a dop and entjie crime spree as desperate mense break the law to get their hands on the banned items.
Government halted the sale of cigarettes and alcohol when the country went into Coronavirus lockdown on 27 March.
But now rokers en suipers are running out of stock and are targeting stores.
A total of three liquor stores have been broken into and looted in the Cape over the weekend, while a man was busted with R1500 worth of counterfeit entjies in Delft.
On Sunday, the Shoprite Liquor store in Langa was looted in broad daylight and a video of the free-for-all went viral.
MAYHEM: Shoprite
Police initially only nabbed a 33-year-old suspect, a woman from nearby Gugulethu, but yesterday said a second suspect - a 48-year-old man - was caught on Sunday night.
Police spokeswoman Novela Potelwa said the suspects are expected to appear in court soon on charges of burglary and theft and more arrests were expected.
Also on Sunday night, a Pick 'n Pay Liquor store in Nyanga was burgled.
The skelms gained entry by removing bricks at the back entrance wall and Potelwa says “large quantities of liquor” were stolen.
Meanwhile, early Monday morning, armed men threatened security guards at the Liquor City bottle store in Brackenfell before breaking into the premises and stealing expensive whiskey among others.
FIX: Skelms removed bricks to gain entry into Pick 'n Pay Liquor in Nyanga
No arrests have been made in these two cases.
A 29-year-old man is expected to appear in court after he was nabbed with R1500 worth of fake ciggies in Delft.
Police were responding to a tip-off on Friday when they swooped on a tuck shop owned by a foreign national, seizing several boxes of majat entjies.
COUNTERFEIT: Majat entjies seized from Delft man
Police spokesperson Captain FC van Wyk says the suspect was warned to appear in the Bellville Magistrates’ Court soon.
DA MP Belinda Bozzoli took to Twitter to slam the ban on the sale of liquor during the 21-day nationwide lockdown.
She said Police Minister Bheki Cele’s “mad decision to ban alcohol has backfired spectacularly” and that alcohol looting was not unexpected.
Cele said that there had been a general decrease in serious and violent crimes and attributed this to the ban.