Dazed and shocked residents reeling from the anarchy that has reduced much of KwaZulu-Natal, including the Durban metro and the provincial capital city Pietermaritzburg to rubble in the past few days, woke up on Wednesday to face another stark reality: milk, bread and other basic foodstuffs have become impossibly scarce.
As reports circulated in local communities of mobs and sinister prowlers in cars without registration plates, of an increasing number of fires being started, with acts of sabotage on water pipes and electricity substations, anxious people swamped the entrances of the few intact grocery outlets spared destruction.
Most customers were turned away empty-handed after standing in queues for several hours. The lucky few were restricted to 16 items each. This because almost everything had been looted.
Cupboards and refrigerators in the shops are empty.
In some communities, residents barter fuel in exchange for milk. There is no bread. There are empty shells where groceries once filled the shelves of local retail outlets and convenience stores.
Medicine is also in short supply, and petrol pumps are running dry.
The ever increasing horror of attacks on communities continued late into the night, forcing men and women to patrol their streets to protect their properties and others in the areas where they live. Police and private security personnel are thinly spread, and the army patrol numbers are grossly inadequate.
It has been reported that 1,234 people have been arrested and 72 deaths resulted from the thuggery.
With millions of jobs across eThekwini, Pietermaritzburg and KwaZulu-Natal lost and food supplies running out at a frightening rate, fresh produce is no longer on anyone’s mind.
But in every human tragedy there are good Samaritans coming together to help.
Local community leaders delivered free milk in Durban on Wednesday. In other areas, community activists distributed a small supply of bread and other foodstuffs to frail-care facilities, old age homes and children’s homes in the suburbs and townships.
“Despair and anxiety are setting in with the realisation that this is not a temporary problem, that the entire food supply chain has been destroyed, and that it will take a very long time to restore it in any significant way,” said Durban Chamber CEO Palesa Phili.
“The crisis is going to deepen disastrously as the looted food runs out rapidly and the numbers of the desperately hungry shoot up exponentially.”
Phili is co-ordinating a relief strategy with a range of suppliers and distributors, working closely with key business leaders and the government to make sure that security, food and medical supplies are prioritised.
Business leaders in townships are concerned and shocked. “We are facing a humanitarian crisis. We are worried. Small business in our townships and rural communities will not come back from this any time soon as they don’t have business liability insurance,” said Thanduxolo Ncane, secretary-general of the KZN Association of Business.
“We are working with a range of stakeholders in government and various business chambers to find a way forward.
“But it’s a tall order. Those who broke the law and caused this must be held accountable,” he said.
The question that continues to mystify exhausted volunteers, anxious homeowners and the owners of the few businesses left still standing is; “Where are the boots on the ground?”
Where is the army the president promised a few days ago?
Defence and military veterans minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula said in parliament on Wednesday that a proposal to increase the number of troops on the ground tenfold from 2,500 was being considered as the state battles to contain the unrest in Gauteng and KZN.
Church leaders have come together to call for calm and co-ordinate relief aid for poor and elderly people and rural communities. “We need peace in our province,” said Rev Thulani Ndlazi, chair and synod secretary of the SA Synod-United Congregational Church of Southern Africa. “It is like déjà vu and reminds us all of our province’s past in the late 80s where we had unrest and violence. We must rise above our differences, work together and help each other.”
In one queue for fresh food arranged by community leaders, women and men were crying. “How do we get back from this, as a nation and as a community? This is like a war,” an Indian mother lamented while collecting her milk.
“I was telling my friend yesterday that for the first time I feel like I am African. Because until now SA has always been like a European country because it was such an amazing country that we had,” a man behind her responded.
“We can’t even bring in food from Johannesburg because the freeways are closed.”
The devastation and chaos have also laid bare the region’s response to a disaster. Emergency services and disaster management teams were all in a state of paralysis.
In eThekwini municipality, services, already under pressure from the Covid-19 pandemic and overrun by a legacy of serial looting by municipal officials, have been further stretched. Concern has been raised in several quarters about the long-term damage this will have on the mental and physical wellbeing of people hit by the devastation.
City leaders have embarked on meetings with communities in an attempt to quell growing tension in the city. Phillip Sithole, deputy city manager for economic development, said the situation remains tense.
“The aftermath of this will be felt. As will the trauma and physical and emotional impact. There will be confusion, disbelief and acute stress. Our people feel defeated and depressed,” said professor Saths Cooper, president of the Pan-African Psychology Union.
“We have to work together collectively to survive. We need a strong leadership, an inclusive leadership.” Cooper said that people will rely on religious and other beliefs to cope with the trauma, including seeking out social support, helping others, using coping strategies and also undergoing therapy.
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