Protests and looting in South Africa: “The situation is out of control”

Burning department stores, blocked motorways – the protests in South Africa are spiraling out of control. The police seem powerless and President Ramaphosa fears food shortages.

The scenes are repeated in different places. Looters are on the move again and again. They destroy property and steal goods, set fire to buildings and block highways. It started with political protests – now there is pure lawlessness in northeastern Gauteng and eastern Kwazulu-Natal.

In the greater Durban area, several department stores are burning, dark clouds of smoke rise into the sky. In Pretoria, looters smash shop windows and empty stores. It works like pure lawlessness. A passer-by in Alexandra, a poorer settlement in Johannesburg, is stunned: “I don’t think that’s okay at all. People are destroying their own resources.”

The protests were triggered by the arrival of former President Jacob Zuma on Thursday. He has been jailed for 15 months for disregarding the court in the course of a corruption investigation. The protests quickly turned into violence.

It seems like the looters have nothing to lose. They are unemployed, they are poor, they are hungry. The police seem powerless. The armed forces that have been at their side since today have strict rules and only assist – so far.

Vigilante groups are forming

“The situation is out of control and there is enormous pressure on every soldier,” says Darren Olivier, a military expert. They are not as trained as the police when it comes to de-escalation or how to control crowds. “It is certainly not ideal and probably also not impossible for soldiers who are under pressure to act more brutally than they should,” said Olivier.

But the people who are on the move are too many – and they are spread out over a large area in Gauteng and Kwazulu-Natal. It’s like some kind of cat-and-mouse game with the security forces. In Durban, residents are already taking their security into their own hands and using vigilante groups to protect neighborhoods and businesses. Because the consequences are bad, says a pharmacist who cleared her shop herself as a precaution.

Billions in damage

“It is looted everywhere. When we heard that our pharmacy had not yet been broken into, we thought: let’s save what we can. It’s bad,” says the pharmacist. Their business has now been emptied and the people they work with no longer have jobs.

“Even if we ask insurance, how long does it take? We’re not a huge company and we have money lying around somewhere. We depend on the turnover we make every day. We have no money to buy goods.” It will take them a while to get back on their feet.

The consequences are grave. The damage is already running into billions. And in the middle of the third corona wave there are interruptions in the vaccination program. Because the N3 motorway is still closed, even President Cyril Ramaphosa fears delivery bottlenecks. Because the N3 is a kind of logistics artery. It leads from the important port in Durban to the industrial center around Johannesburg.

President fears food shortages

“Shops have been looted and infrastructure destroyed. We will be at great risk of food and drug insecurity for the next few weeks,” said President Ramaphosa.

A group of experts at government level now meets twice a day to discuss what needs to be done and to restore law and order. The brilliant idea for this is still missing. Hundreds of people have been arrested, and yet each arrest is like a drop in the ocean.

The mood is heated in Gauteng. According to the authorities, at least 45 people died in clashes, most of them in Kwazulu-Natal, the home of ex-President Zuma. In other provinces of South Africa, as a precautionary measure, plans are being forged how local shopping centers can be protected.