South Africa riots – The inside story of Durban’s week of anarchy

South Africa – Two weeks after South Africa was gripped by a frenzy of looting and arson – the worst scenes of violence since the advent of democracy in 1994 – the makeshift road blocks and mounds of rubbish in the port city of Durban have been cleared away.

But soldiers continue to patrol tense neighbourhoods devastated by a week of anarchy that left more than 300 people dead.

“Everything is gone. I have no insurance. I’m worried about the future of South Africa. I’m worried about the future of my kids,” said entrepreneur Dawn Shabalala, whose four small shops were looted – down to the last water pipe and electrical fitting.

She recalled watching in horror and frustration as overstretched local police made no attempt to stop the destruction.

“I fear it can happen again. But where do I go? What do I do? I had 12 staff that I can’t afford to pay. The government didn’t take any notice of this,” she said, standing in her ransacked hair salon on a street where every shop appeared to have been cleared out, with several set on fire too.

Mr Zikalala had earlier faced criticism for suggesting that in order to calm the situation, the authorities should release former President Jacob Zuma from prison.

It was Zuma’s arrest, for contempt of court, which sparked the unrest, leading to claims that his allies were seeking to overthrow South Africa’s young democracy.

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But later Mr Zikalala was toeing the official government line, acknowledging that the violence in his province and in the economic heartland of Gauteng “started as a mobilisation around the former president, but then became something uncontrollable”.

“It was deliberately started and orchestrated… and had an element of undermining the state – an insurrection,” Mr Zikalala added.

Although “many, many people are very unhappy about [Zuma’s] incarceration,” Mr Zikalala said, “anyone involved in instigating or planning or supporting disruption must be arrested and prosecuted”.

In one of the worst affected neighbourhoods, Phoenix, members of the large community of Indian origin expressed concern that racial tensions had been deliberately enflamed by those orchestrating the violence, and the security forces had failed to protect communities.

Source – https://www.bbc.co.uk/