Police have opened an inquest docket after three bodies were found charred in a central Durban shop on Friday.
The business, Gingers International Shop, located in Monty Naicker (formerly Pine) Street was looted and then gutted during the riots that erupted this month across KwaZulu-Natal and parts of Gauteng.
The SA Police Service’s National Joint Operational and Intelligence Structure spokeswoman Colonel Brenda Muridili said that earlier in the day, police had responded to a call concerning the discovery of three bodies of unknown people inside the building.
The police’s search and rescue team entered the premises, which had been shut off by a garage door at its entrance, in what was regarded as a risky operation in an unstable building.
They later emerged from the building with the bodies which they loaded into a Forensic Pathology Services’ van.
Durban metro police also attended the scene.
“An inquest docket has been opened for at the Durban Central (police station),” Muridili said.
KZN has lost billions of rand as a result of the mayhem, sparked by the arrest of former president Jacob Zuma but widely regarded to have been driven by poverty, inequality and unemployment which were worsened by the lockdowns aimed at the spread of Covid-19.
The province’s two major metropolitan areas of Durban and Pietermaritzburg were badly hit as were many rural towns. These include Howick, Greytown, Wartburg, Mooi River, Bulwer and Eshowe, among others.
The Independent on Saturday