Huge crowds wrestle for Black Friday deals in South Africa

Huge crowds of bargain hunters have pushed, shoved and battled to be the first to get their hands on the top promotions on Black Friday in South Africa.

Shoppers stormed through branches of Game South Africa after queuing all night in Port Elizabeth ahead of one of the biggest retail events of the year.

Game is a popular chain store across South Africa and sells everything from electronic appliances to sports and leisure equipment.

In Cape Town, a large Game store opened at midnight and shoppers patiently formed a huge queue outside the Canal Walk shopping centre.

In stark contrast to scenes at other shopping centres across the capital - where crowds rushed and wrested for goods - when the Canal Walk shopping centre opened most people entered in a reasonably orderly fashion.

The centre had taken a number of steps to avoid a repeat of chaotic scenes during Black Friday in 2017, including introducing a ticket system to reduce the number of customers getting into the store at one time and increasing security.