Eerie silence grips the normally-bustling Pan Africa Mall precinct after looting

An eerie silence gripped the normally overcrowded business precinct around Pan Africa Mall in Wynberg when workers returned home from work this evening, 3 September. The area resembled a ghost town in the absence of last-minute shoppers, hooting taxis, trolley pushers and street vendors.

This, after the looting which occurred overnight and into this morning, resulting in extensive damage and the burning of shops, theft and the destruction of street hawkers’ trolleys as well as the wares they leave for overnight safety at the Freedom Square’s offloading bays.

There were only police manning the area and marauding goats dominating the place after Premier David Makhura, MEC for Community Safety Faith Mazibuko and provincial police commissioner Lieutenant General Elias Mawela inspected the area and talked to distraught business operators before dashing to urge for calm elsewhere.

Unease within a tenuous calm could also be felt in other other parts of the township. Spaza shops were either closed or sold only the bare necessities to customers, presumably after moving the rest of their products to safety in anticipation of any flare-ups.

Makhura termed the carnage which occurred earlier in other parts of the province as acts of criminality, with the police commissioner claiming that they were on the trail of a ring leader of the Alex carnage. “Eight suspects were arrested in the looting and will assist the police with investigations on the cause of the criminality.” This, he said as sentiments of xenophobia are linked to the other incidents.

Security guards who witnessed the incident said it was total mayhem with hundreds of looters seen carrying away wardrobes, stoves, beds and mattresses, music sets from shops, chunks and carcasses of uncut meat from butcheries and liquor from bottle stores.

One guard said police attempted to disperse the looters by firing rubber bullets.

Apparently one man stumbled alone from the carnage collapsed just after passing the Alexandra Magistrates’ Court on 2nd Street was taken to the Alexandra Community Health Centre for treatment in a trolley after the ambulance services called to the scene said they had difficulty in accessing the place.

Reporters who gathered at the site prior to Makhura’s arrival witnessed the arrest of one of the looters who tried his luck on items from one of the shops. “He wailed and begged the police not to arrest him, claiming that he had never been to and was afraid of jail,” Alex News reporter Nduduzo Nxumalo said.

Meanwhile some residents claimed the continuing unease would flare up into confrontation occasionally if jobs, particularly for the youth, remained scarce and if foreign nationals were preferred by employers than South African citizens. “This is a recipe for ‘war’ as our local youth with qualifications can’t find jobs,” said another resident.

DA proportional representative councillor Shadrack Mkhonto said the carnage in the ward that his party controls has been foretold for long by Mayor Herman Mashaba. “He has urged in vain for the Department of Home Affairs to tighten immigration laws, resulting in undocumented foreign nationals flocking into the country.

“Our porous borders let in anyone, including criminals and those with contraband including drugs which harm local children, while the peddlers and their families live in relative comfort,” Mkhonto said. He also reiterated the mayor’s insistence that the army should be led to protect the border areas.

He said it was a norm for all countries to let in only documented visitors. “No country will let anyone illegal to roam freely.”

The carnage also occurred at a time of illegal evictions of foreign nationals from some RDP houses in the township by a community group, saying they are reserved only for citizens on the long-standing housing list. Some though, counter this as a camouflage to sell or rent the house for gain by the group.