How SA reacts to riots will define us

The looting and destruction needs to stop. Today is the sixth day of seeing our country being torn apart by senseless vandalism, theft and criminality.

It will take years and years to recover from the damage done over the past few days. Every minute, hour, day the protests continue to wreak havoc, we stand to lose more.

Food and medical supplies are under threat, never mind how the incessant looting has put a massive dent in our Covid vaccination roll-out programme after numerous sites have been forced to close due to disruptions. Future foreign investment is in doubt.

With an economy already limping due to years of mismanagement, abuse of taxpayers’ money and blatant theft of the national coffers, not to mention the added burden of trying to recover from the continuous blows as a result of Covid, we could not afford further setbacks.

Unemployment is high, businesses close by the day due to the lockdown restrictions forced on them and a nation is angry and frustrated, struggling to make ends meet.

“This is very painful to see,” says a takeaway shop owner at Mams Mall in Mamelodi, east of Pretoria, who wanted to remain anonymous.

“People have families to feed. That is all I could think about last night: how am I going to feed my family if they burn down the mall?”

Moses Moshe, who works at the mall’s butchery, says: “Look around you – these people don’t have hope.”

Thandie Johnson asks AFP reporters: “Why? Why? Can somebody tell me why? I don’t know what to do,” when she looks at the bare shelves of her party accessories shop after it was ransacked at Diepkloof mall.

“I’ve got nothing, no pension money, nothing. So where do I start?”

This looting needs to end.
How we move forward from this catastrophe will define us for many generations to come.