We regret looting, say impoverished residents

NOW that the dust has settled following the recent looting and damage of companies and work places, residents who participated in the unruly actions say they are regretful.

Durban informal settlement residents who participated in stealing said they were counting the cost of not having jobs.

Speaking to the Sunday Tribune this week, Bongani Mngadi, 54, from the Puntans Hill informal settlement, which is located two minutes away from the Springfield Value Centre which was looted and torched, said people participated in the looting because of hunger.

Mngadi said President Cyril Ramaphosa shouldn’t blame people for this kind of behaviour because he knew what was coming when he first initiated the lockdown regulations last year.

“What we saw in the recent weeks is hunger and desperation. Most of the informal residents work in restaurants, taverns, night clubs and in supermarkets, who were left unemployed because of lockdown.

“I am among those who have lost my job and now I have to depend on part-time work, if I can get any,” he said.

Mngadi said that he was part of the looting that took place at the Springfield Value Centre, however, he criticised the people who burned and destroyed buildings.

“There was no need to torch the place. People should have just taken what they needed. Can you imagine how many people are left without a job?

“I don’t condone taking something that doesn’t belong to you but to destroy it is something else. Now we are faced with unemployed youth who will turn into criminals because of unemployment,” he said.

Another resident, Nonjabulo Mhlongo, 31, an unemployed mother of two, said she was tired of not being able to provide for her children.

Mhlongo, said she depended on her child support social grant which was not enough money.

“When it all started, my neighbours and I heard noise coming from the Value Centre and decided to see what was going on.

“To our surprise, almost every shop was open. I just went to Pick n Pay and grabbed what I could manage to take at that time,” she said.

Mhlongo said she doesn’t justify what she did as right, but the R960 that she gets every month from her social grants cannot pay for her six-year-old daughter’s R2 000 school fees.

She said that now that she has food for this month she can take half of her social grant and pay towards her child’s school fees.

Finiza Noluvo, 42, a resident from the Quarry Road Informal settlement, who also owns a tuck-shop said when the unrest started she had to lock up her shop because a tuck-shop nearby was robbed and people had started taking away items.

“I decided to lock up in fear that they might come to this side. Fortunately, they did not enter my premises,” she said.

Noluvo said the unrest has left her younger sister without any source of income, since they looted and torched the Checkers store where she worked as a cashier.

Ndodeni Dengo, community activist at the Kwamathambo Informal settlement, in the north of Durban, said the unrest had caused tension between ratepayers and informal settlement residents.

“When the unrest started people took it as a joke. They were not aware of the repercussions of the damage they have caused,” said Dengo.

He said the SAPS visited the settlement but did not take any of the looted goods.

“What we are now trying to do is to build up the relationship between one another because in reality we all need each other and for peacemaking.”

Dengo said he believed people were manipulated by certain individuals to cause social disorder which has left most people jobless.

“Now, it is our job as community leaders to try and ease the situation to bring back trust.”

Xolani Nala, ward councillor in Reservoir Hills, said their mission was to make sure that the affected parties are compensated.

“We are setting up meetings to find ways as to how the entrepreneurs can be compensated. It has been brought to my attention that some of the shop owners did not have insurance for their shops and we are trying to resolve those issues”.

Nala agreed with Dengo that there were instigators behind the plot who used people in order to fulfil their desires.

He said that they are calling out to communities to refrain from looting and participating in social disorders.