Durban - The Mayville area, just west of Durban, has been left with a single supermarket to serve the community after hordes of looters destroyed shops and infrastructure in the KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng provinces in what began as protests in support of jailed former president Jacob Zuma.
When the looters were done stealing every item off the shelves of hardware stores and supermarkets, they began stripping away mechanical, electrical and plumbing infrastructure from the buildings, according to African News Agency (ANA) photographer Nqobile Mbonambi, who was on the ground on Wednesday.
Mbonambi said that some community members were busy with clean-up operations in parts of the area.
Lines around the last shop standing in Mayville, Jabula Supermarket, snaked for hundreds of metres as residents queued in the hope of purchasing a loaf of bread.
Mbonambi said she spoke to members of the community who assured her that the shop would not be standing to serve the community had it not been for a few brave people who used whatever means necessary to defend it.
She said when shops and other businesses had been picked clean, the criminal protesters began stripping away parts of the buildings to sell for scrap metal.
“The area itself was filled with water. I’m not too sure but I think it was from a burst sewer pipe. There’s dirt lying all over and some of the amapara (criminals) are still stripping away the electricity and plumbing from buildings,” she said.
“There’s barely any police presence in the area. I saw a police van driving past like every hour or so.”
The violent protests began last week after Zuma supporters said they would bring the country to its knees if he was not released from a 15-month jail term after being found guilty of contempt by the Constitutional Court.
The group of protesters looted and burnt major shopping malls, water treatment plants and chemical factories, among others, throughout KZN, as well as parts of Gauteng.
Major food warehouses were also looted, leaving KZN incapable of restocking shelves of supermarkets and retailers, sending the price of basic food items rocketing in parts of the province.
African News Agency (ANA)