Pretoria- Jewellery cases smashed, cellphones ripped from displays, clothes snatched and alcohol stocks plundered.
This was the picture that met Pretoria CBD shopowners when they returned on Thursday after Wednesday’s EFF march against President Jacob Zuma.
They spent Thursday carting valuables out of their stores to prevent further theft.
Other organisations, such as the DA and Save South Africa, took part in the march but EFF supporters were at the forefront, occupying most streets in the city centre.
The windows and doors of many shops were smashed and merchandise was stolen. Businesses were forced to close.
The EFF also brought traffic to a standstill. Petrol stations, grocery shops, boutiques and appliance stores were some of the businesses targeted.
Shopkeepers said they fled in terror as looters rampaged. A family of four had to flee their flat above the liquor store they own when it was set ablaze.
An empty ATM was smashed open during the frenzy and liquor and cigarettes snatched and customers abused at Capital Inn on Church Street.
An employee said: “They also set the place alight in two places, which we luckily managed to extinguish."
Further down the road, a tailor and alterations shop was also broken into and looted.
Tailor Felicia Mensah said most of the items stolen belonged to customers.
“We don’t know where we are going to get the money to repay the clients for the clothes."
She said the cost of damage, including broken windows and furniture and stolen stock, was around R110 000.
Looters managed to break a roller-door and a metal gate to gain access to an internet and gadget shop in Prinsloo Street.
The distraught owner said he had lost about R100 000 worth of stock, including laptops, phones and tablets.
The owner of Apollo 11 shop on Paul Kruger Street, who identified himself only as Carlos, said he was doing stocktaking at the back when he heard a window breaking.
He called the police, who arrested two people but protesters got away with R20 000 worth of cigarettes and liquor. He described the incident as disheartening and demoralising.
Looters also raided a Pep Cell store and a KFC, and broke a window at a Spitz store and an Absa branch.
EFF supporters also clashed with police, who used stun grenades, rubber bullets and water cannons to disperse them after they apparently tried to force their way onto the lawns of the Union Buildings.
“SAPS management, and surely all law-abiding citizens, are outraged by the behaviour exhibited by certain elements in the streets of Pretoria, which can only be described as outright hooliganism,” said acting national police commissioner Lieutenant-General Khomotso Phahlane. He said 28 arrests were made.