By Marlan Padayachee
15 July 2021: THE government today deployed the Minister of Human Settlements, Water and Sanitation Lindiwe Sisulu to riot-hit Durban to encourage nervous communities to remain calm during the ongoing crisis of looting and acts of arsons that has become a moving target in an all-out bid to quell simmering racial tensions caused by the ongoing public unrest that has claimed dozens of lives in KwaZulu-Natal.
So far, 26 lives have been lost since the looting spread across Durban after 26 trucks and trailers worth R50-million were gutted and raided of goods at the Mooi Plaza strategic route into KZN from Gauteng.
“During the visits, these leaders will interact with community members and will call for looting and vandalism of infrastructure to come to an end,’’ said mayoral spokeswoman Lindiwe Khuzwayo.
Almost 72 people have been killed and 1 234 arrested during the seven-day rioting and looting in KZN and Gauteng since the weekend.
Millions of South Africans and nations worldwide were aghast when they witnessed thousands of protesters – men, women and children – brazenly looting supermarkets, shops, stores and warehouses – including big-brands like national supermarkets, Kentucky Fried Chicken, Coca-Cola, Nandos, Chicken Licken’, Food Lovers Market and bank ATMS – as the police watched helplessly and fired rubber bullets randomly, and the chaos has plunged the government into its worst crisis since President Cyril Ramaphosa replaced former president Jacob Zuma – initially the start of the powder keg political spark that triggered the widespread protesting over the arrest and jailing of the disgraced ANC leader from Nkandla over a contempt of court sentencing by the Constitutional Court recently.
Government officials have cautioned against the crisis turning into a racial profiling of the diverse communities following complaints that black people were being barred from predominantly white, coloured and Indian suburbs across the city, and residents have set up community checkpoints, blockaded housing estates, put up’’residents only’’ signs and vigilantes, volunteers and patrolling groups are demanding ‘’proof of residence’’ from visitors.
As the senior ANC minister joined the Ethekwini Municipality’s mayor, Mxolisi Kaunda, on a day-long visit to the city’s inner-city hotspots of Mariannhill, Chatsworth, Pinetown and Clermont on Thursday, the looting mobs from the southern flank townships of Lamontville and Umlazi moved into the Indian-zoned suburb of Merebank after thousands raided the Tastic rice warehouse in nearby Mobeni overnight despite the police receiving tip-offs of the looting.
Many of Durban’s suburbs are under siege from looters with Indian, white and coloured communities barricading suburbs and are presently pushing and fighting backs in armed pitched battles with the looting mobs.
Sisulu and Kaunda kicked off their ‘’calming campaign’’ at the police station at Mariannhill, the horrific scenes, aired on national TV, of a stand-off between police and the communities over the raiding and looting of a large liquor warehouse on the outskirts near Pinetown.
The ANC political pair then proceeded to Chatsworth, the city’s largest concentration of Indians where armed residents confronted the oncoming looters with unconfirmed reports of many deaths in what appears to be a racial clash, and spoke to the SAPS officers and community policing forum members. The entourage moved to the Clermont Sizakala Centre Auditorium and rounded-up the inspection-in-loco at the Pinetown police station at 4pm.
“The visits are going well so far and the minister and the mayor are appealing to police to step up the monitoring of the volatile situations and are urging communities to remain calm and stand down from any racial or armed confrontation with the looters,’’ a mayoral aide told me.
However, the situation at Phoenix, another Indian-concentrated township also under the siege of the Covid-19 economy, joblessness and poverty, is somewhat scary, resulting in Police Minister Bheki Cele arriving in the inner-city suburb in the morning: “There are racial tensions simmering here between the Indian community and the African people in Bhambayi and 15 looters were killed since the start of the unrest this week.’’
“This is a dangerous thing of the racial tensions,’’ the minister told local police and community leaders.
In apartheid-era 1985, Bhambayi, a sprawling township and home of Mahatma Gandhi’s peace shrine and self-help settlement, was plunged into racial rioting when African and Indians clashed and hundreds were displaced and dozens lost their lives over the intra-domestic tensions between both neighbouring communities.
Meanwhile, thousands of residents across Durban have taken to social media and calling radio stations to voice their grievances over the looters and the shortage of food and essential supplies – including fresh bread, milk, bottle and piped water. On Wednesday, queues at supermarkets were stretched across many roads in towns from Westville, Pinetown, and the highway areas to other suburban hotspots that have been vandalized by the looters amidst tight community security measures and lookout posts – including the N3 and M13 highways flanking from black townships.
Meanwhile, the Right2Know organization has called for State Security Minister Ayanda Dlodlo and Police Minister Bheki Cele to resign immediately for failing to pick up intelligence ahead of the start of the widespread looting that has engulfed South Africa’s key economic hubs of KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng into chaos and anarchy. Both ministers admitted at a press conference that investigations were underway to pinpoint about a dozen culprits – including former State Security Agency senior officials that are loyal to jailed former president Jacob Zuma and his adult children have also been identified for using social media platforms to fuel the current crisis of looting, anarchy and arson in the country.
“There was intelligence, but the intelligence came too late. The information was 90% correct but we did not get the intelligence that the people were going to raid the shopping malls,”’ Defence Minister Nosivwe Mapisa-Nqukala told Parliament on Wednesday.
Pockets of pro-Zuma demonstrators and looters have threatened to storm key installations – including hospitals.
Meanwhile, Durban city centre is gridlocked and traffic jams are building up as desperate people join queues to purchase bread, milk, baby food and diapers and other essential foodstuff, similarly long queues greeted residents of many inner-city suburbs and towns.
- MARLAN PADAYACHEE, our freelance senior correspondent and group columnist, is monitoring the crisis of the looting, arsons, chaos and racial tensions on a 24-hourly basis, and can be reached on: marlan.padayacgee@gmail.com
