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A news update on #SouthAfricasBurning #KZNViolence #ZumaCOupAttempt - 14 July 2021

All is calm, even the wind, at Kwelera on the farm. East London stays calm, thanks to the taxi drivers, local community members, private security firms and police. The first are now local heroes - they are normally vilified as road pirates whose code is "We stop anywhere!" The taxis lined up to form barricades at entrances to malls and the drivers and owners stepped out, armed to the teeth, I am given to understand, and chased down any would be looters. The miscreants were made to kneel on the floor in the supermarket aisle, heads between their knees, until the Police and Army arrived to arrest them. The local communities in the Eastern Cape are carrying #NOLOOTING banners.

The people in KwaZulu Natal and Gauteng, however, have had days and nights of looting. A friend of mine has written a few FB posts:

"I sit here listening to continuous gun fire, sirens, alarms and learning of more and more businesses that have been pillaged and destroyed. And the gun shots continue and continue and continue. Please, how are my friends suffering from anxiety, depression, PTSD and grief doing? I am trying to watch a series - but everytime I hear a gun shot or voices or a car driving too slowly I pause it to listen and then my thoughts spiral. What are you doing?Government should have declared this a state of emergency days ago. No food or fuel or medicine delivery trucks have delivered to the two shops we have left."

My youngest sister tells me that there is no bread or milk to be had where they live. There are calls for donations of baby formula and diapers by desperate moms who can't find either as their local shops are either out of stock, closed or looted. The menfolk have been stepping up to run patrols - several I know, including my brother, are part of neighbourhood watch groups who include men of different racial and language groups. The womenfolk have been providing coffee, soup, sandwiches, snacks and assisting with clearing up after the looters have gone. Empangeni was cleaned up and is being cleaned up by its’ residents for example.

Ordinary South Africans are heroic, angry, determined and disgusted by the shenanigans. Residents are desperate for help as violence rages on in parts of Durban. Multiple factories and shops have been looted over the past few days. Actually, it's not shenanigans, it criminality, first and last. What makes it worse is that much of the mob actions has been instigated by members of Zuma's family and comrades who sit in cushy comfort in five star hotels, using social media to incite violence and civil disobedience. Careless of the lives that are being lost: At least 72 people have now been killed in the violence including 10 people killed in a stampede during looting on Monday night at a shopping centre in Soweto. More than 1 300 people have been arrested for public violence and economic sabotage, but these are mostly kids and fat ladies who couldn't run fast enough carrying their loot.

Despite everything, people are finding things to laugh about and some very funny video clips have made their way onto social media. And people are picking up shovels and brooms to clear up the mess. Taxi owners who operate within Durban Central Region have met on ways to stop the ongoing looting & violent protests happening within the Region. During day the owners will embark on a clean up campaign around the city - they did so and did a fine job of cleaning up the mess left behind. I have to salute them #VIVATaxisGreatJob

Whether the inept and spineless politicians will bring their part and declare KwaZulu a disaster zone is of course, debatable. Thousands are calling for a State of Emergency to be declared. Another 5 000 Army are being deployed into the hot spots. As night falls, the jackals and hyenas come out baying and howling in the veld. The rioters and looters do the same, trying to hide their evil deeds under cover of darkness. #CryTheBelovedCountry #NkosiSikeleleIafrika #GodblessSouthAfrica