looting - The African Mirror

Jun

2023

By KHALID ABDELAZIZ and MOHAMED NURELDIN

Shelling, looting in Sudan’s capital as military factions battle for eighth week

SHELLING and heavy clashes hit areas of Sudan's capital, residents said, with reports of spreading lawlessness in Khartoum and in the western region of Darfur after more than seven weeks of conflict between rival military factions. Fighting between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) intensified after the expiry late on Saturday of a ceasefire deal brokered by Saudi Arabia and the U.S. The war has uprooted more than 1.2 million people within Sudan and sent about 400,000 fleeing into neighbouring countries, inflicting heavy damage on the capital where the remaining residents are at the mercy of battles,…

Sep

2021

By The African Mirror

Race and capitalism: no easy answers, but posturing will get South Africa nowhere

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

IT is likely that historians will conclude that there was no one reason why the recent riots and looting of supermarkets, shops and warehouses in KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng, South Africa’s two most economically important provinces, caught up so many generally law-abiding citizens in their slipstream. There were seemingly numerous dynamics at play, from the sheer poverty of numerous black citizens through to the manipulations of social media by supporters of former President Jacob Zuma, angered by his arrest. ROGER SOUTHALL, Professor of Sociology, University of the Witwatersrand However, one explanation which has been touted in various quarters has been that…

Jul

2021

By The African Mirror

Why have South Africans been on a looting rampage? Research offers insights

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

THE looting of businesses, shopping centres and warehouses in South Africa over the past week, particularly in the KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng provinces, has taken place at an unprecedented scale. It has affected both poor and middle-class areas. Private as well as government property has been damaged and destroyed. People have been injured and lives have been lost. GUY LAMB, Criminologist / Lecturer, Stellenbosch University A variety of narratives have emerged in an effort to explain the looting frenzy. Some have accused die-hard supporters of former president Jacob Zuma of fuelling the unrest. Others have intimated that the looting is a…

Jul

2021

By The African Mirror

Grandmothers combat looting, crime in SA

NEWS

KIM HARRISBERG AS looters ran through the streets of Johannesburg, South African grandmother Evelyne turned off her lights, stood by her window and carefully lifted her curtain, surveying the chaos as gunshots and screams filled the night air. The 72-year-old was guarding her property, but she was also gathering information to share with her neighbourhood watch team, made up of a few male patrollers and about a dozen grandmothers in the inner city's Bertrams neighbourhood. "I was scared to go outside, but I heard that there were gunshots coming from a nearby shop and groups of men running through the…

Jul

2021

By The African Mirror

Chaos in South Africa points to failures in the project to build a democracy

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

THE spate of violence that’s engulfed South Africa shows that not all citizens have internalised constitutional democracy and the rule of law as the organising principle of the post-apartheid society. MASHUPYE HERBERT MASERUMULE, Professor of Public Affairs, Tshwane University of Technology Various interventions to institutionalise democracy were more focused on policy interventions and institution-building to safeguard it, but not on ensuring that it was embraced by the entirety of society, appreciating it as the basis of its evolution. The violence started in KwaZulu-Natal following the imprisonment of the former president Jacob Zuma to serve a 15-month sentence for contempt of…

Jul

2021

By The African Mirror

South Africa unrest hits farming, threatens food supply

NEWS

TANISHA HEIBERG SOUTH African farmers have been hit by days of unrest and looting as trucks carrying produce are prevented from delivering to markets, threatening food supplies, industry officials said. Crowds have this week clashed with police and ransacked shopping malls, with dozens reported killed as grievances unleashed by last week's jailing of former president Jacob Zuma boiled over into the worst violence in years. Some of the country's major highways have been closed off. "Farmers have already had major losses because they cannot get their products to local markets and to shops," Christo van der Rheede, executive director at…

Jul

2021

By The African Mirror

72 dead, 1 234 arrested as violence, looting continue

NEWS

AFRICAN MIRROR REPORTER THE violence and looting of shopping malls across South Africa have continued to spread causing damage running into billions of rands, destroying livelihoods, and leading to the loss of lives. A total of 72 people have died and 1 243 have been arrested as the South African army and the police battle with lawlessness. Crowds clashed with police and ransacked or set ablaze shopping malls in cities across SA, with dozens of people reported killed, as grievances unleashed by the jailing of ex-president Jacob Zuma boiled over into the worst violence in years. Protests that followed Zuma's…

Jul

2021

By The African Mirror

Three days of violent protests

MULTIMEDIA

THREE days of violence started in some parts of KwaZulu-Natal and spread to Johannesburg, Soweto in Gauteng, Limpopo and Mpumalanga. The South African Police have arrested 62 people in connection with criminal acts. Police believe the protests calling for the release of Jacob Zuma, who is serving his 15-month sentence for contempt, has been hijacked by criminal elements. In Alexandra, a police officer was shot and rushed to hospital. Two other officers sustained minor injuries when they responded to information about businesses being looted. The police said 18 people were arrested. [origincode_photo_gallery_wp id="35"]

Jul

2021

By The African Mirror

SA army deployed as looting, arson continue

NEWS

AFRICAN MIRROR REPORTER SOUTH Africa deployed soldiers today to quell violence that erupted in the wake of former president Jacob Zuma's jailing, after days of riots left at least six people dead. Police said disturbances had intensified and 219 people arrested as the controversial ex-leader challenged his 15-month prison term in the country's top court. Smoke from burning buildings swirled in the air as items from burgled shops lay strewn by the side of the road in Pietermaritzburg in Zuma's home province of KwaZulu-Natal (KZN). The sporadic pro-Zuma protests that broke out when he handed himself over last week have…