On Thursday, a week of violence that swept South Africa began to fade, as people began to count the cost of an orgy of arson and looting that damaged hundreds of businesses and killed at least 70 people.
While looting continued in portions of the eastern port city of Durban, shopkeepers and other citizens in Johannesburg sorted through the wreckage, cleaned rubbish, and assessed what remained of their destroyed businesses.
According to source, roughly 50 people picked up broken glass and stuffed empty shoe boxes into plastic garbage bags at Diepkloof Mall in Soweto, South Africa’s largest township and one of the hardest impacted locations.
Garment businesses including Mr Price, Rage, and Ackermans were deserted, with nothing but clothing racks and naked mannequins strewn about.
“It’s heartbreaking. Very, very heartbreaking. Everything is gone. It’s going to take months to be back up again,” said Ricardo Desousa, manager of a ransacked butcher shop in Soweto’s Bara Mall.
His staff were helping clean up the damage. “They’re not going to get paid,” he said. “There’s no money.”
The rioting began in retaliation for ex-president Jacob Zuma’s arrest last week for failing to appear at a corruption investigation. But, fueled by popular resentment over the suffering and inequality that nearly three decades of democracy since apartheid’s end have failed to alleviate, they quickly devolved into looting and destruction.
According to the most recent government estimates from 2015, half of the population lives in poverty, and rising unemployment since the coronavirus pandemic began has left many people desperate. In the first three months of 2021, unemployment reached a new high of 32.6 percent.
On Wednesday, Defence Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula said she planned to send up to 25,000 soldiers to the provinces of KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng, where security forces were struggling to put an end to days of looting, arson, and violence. find out more
Authorities say 5,000 troops have been on the streets since Wednesday, more than double the number expected. When the rest would come was unknown.
At least 1,350 people have been arrested so far by security personnel.
Food and other commodities are in limited supply as a result of the ransacking of stores, which might become a significant problem in the coming days. The closure of numerous gas stations has harmed transportation supply lines.
An unknown people have been driven out of work due to the damage of enterprises.
On Thursday in Durban, crowds in the Mobeni neighborhood rolled away trolleys loaded with maize meal and other plundered necessities, according to a Reuters reporter.
Some fully laden pick-up trucks – one of which had to be abandoned due to a lack of fuel. To prevent additional looting, taxi drivers blocked some roads.
The streets of Johannesburg’s central business district and the Alexandra township, both of which had been hit hard by violence, were calm.
Councillor Mpho Moerane of Soweto reported that over 300 volunteers were cleaning all of the township’s damaged retail centers. Two guys were erecting steel doors at the entrance to a Shoprite liquor store in Bara Mall that had been entirely wiped out and was strewn with trash.
Hospitals dealing with a third wave of COVID-19 have also been hampered by the unrest. On Wednesday, the National Hospital Network said that it was out of oxygen and medications, the majority of which are imported through Durban. Some immunization clinics have had to close.
Zuma, 79, was sentenced last month for defying an order to give evidence at a judicial inquiry probing high-level graft during his time in office from 2009 to 2018.
He has pleaded not guilty in a separate case on charges including corruption, fraud, racketeering and money laundering. He says he is the victim of a witchunt by his political foes.