DURBAN - Seven months after the July 2021 unrest and looting in KwaZulu-Natal several businesses in Mariannhill, near Pinetown, are still recouping their losses.
More than 60 businesses on Chestnut Crescent were damaged and looted. Some have reopened for business with bricked-up windows and additional security.
Business owners who spoke to the Daily News showed pictures of the damage, where their businesses were stripped bare of everything including wall plugs.
Some were set alight, and had taken longer to reopen because they were not insured.
One of them is Mariannhill Pharmacy owned by Sally Padayachie, wife of the late ANC stalwart Roy Padayachie. She is the chairperson of the Mariannhill Business Forum.
With plans to open in February, she was in her pharmacy on Monday while fittings and fixtures were being put in place before stock arrives.
Padayachie opened the business in 1984. It was the first complex in the area and it gave other businesses hope to invest in the area and create employment.
She said that under apartheid Mariannhill was a semi-rural area where major pharmaceutical companies did not venture.
“I took the chance. It was a state-ofthe-art pharmacy giving the people the best health service in the area, seven days a week. We gave our everything and currently employ seven people.”
She said the pharmacy was also stalked by the security branch police during apartheid. A police unit often used to attack anti-apartheid groups, searching for her husband who went into hiding. The Padayachies formed the first ANC branch in the area.
She was hauled out of the pharmacy in handcuffs and threatened with indefinite detention.
“We are rebuilding the pharmacy from scratch; from the ashes we rise with hope. We were short-changed by the insurance company. Before opening, I need to follow the regulations. The instigators are still free while we re-build.
“Our vision was that Mariannhill must be a model where all races can live in harmony and it can be replicated in the rest of the country.”
Madari Centre was also looted, but saved from a fire when the sprinklers were activated, said businessman Amod Adam.
The sprinklers caused water damage to most stores.
Adam estimated the damage to property and theft of goods at R100 million.
Adam said he was devastated after losing all his stock. He reopened in late November while at least five shops closed their businesses in the area.
Doctor Hoosen Randeree, who had his surgery in the centre for 47 years, said it was “destroyed” and nothing was spared by the looters, including plugs, patient files, patient cards and doctors’ equipment.
It was reported in July 2021 that a number of key centres of the economy were badly affected.
Daily News