Durban - On Wednesday the business park at the centre of the North Coast town was, for the most part, quiet, but when night fell, the petrol bombing began.
Local business owners had closed shop and the only people on site were private security personnel and police, patrolling a landscape of burnt-out containers and piles of charred rubble, where until Sunday night all had been order and industry.
The townships surrounding iSithebe were tense, with residents apparently unhappy at the appointment of an induna and the nomination of a councillor candidate.
Chanting echoed in the distance and every so often, rioters would breach the park’s borders, breaking the peace. One such incident occurred at around dusk on Wednesday. A crowd had gathered on the banks of a small river separating the township from the park, and were taunting the authorities on the other side, gathering up rocks to throw at them.
They made some attempts to cross, but were staved off and eventually calm returned. But as night fell, the rioters began throwing petrol bombs.
The first target: Distinctive Choice – a clothing factory, employing more than 2 000 people.
The back end of the factory was razed.
As black plumes of smoke spilt out of its roof, emergency services, waiting at the ready, rushed into action. IPSS Medical Rescue was one of the first at the scene.
Along with firefighters and other local emergency services, including Ithala Fire and Rural Metro, they worked for more than an hour to quell the blaze
Reports of more petrol bombs came in and bursts of gunfire shattered the quiet intermittently. There were reports of looting in the townships, but emergency services could not gain access to the affected areas.
Earlier in the day, ANC local and provincial leaders, as well as alliance partners, were supposed to hold a meeting with the community, but the protesters – in their thousands – were calling for more than 100 of their comrades, who had been arrested earlier in the week, to be released. When this was refused, they reportedly became aggressive.
The meeting was then brought to a halt and the officials were whisked away. Public order police dispersed the crowd using tear gas and rubber bullets and they broke off into smaller groups.
A meeting was expected to be held on Thursday, but those involved said they had doubts as to what this was likely to achieve.