The Citizen reports that like a mob of scavengers, looters descended on the Vosloorus Naledi Mall by night, looting everything – money left in ATM machines, food, meat, clothes, computers, furniture – and cleared all medication from the shelves of the centre’s only pharmacy.

Naledi is among several business premises pillaged during the outbreak of violence in KwaZulu-Natal and parts of Gauteng – following the sentencing to 15 months’ jail of former president Jacob Zuma for contempt of the Constitutional Court. With looters carrying plastic bags full of food and cases of liquor, MC Botha Drive – littered with stones – became a hive of criminal activity, with no sign of the government’s promised SA National Defence Force soldiers. At Shoprite Checkers, a cleanup operation has begun, with panic-stricken staff mopping floors and bare food shelves, unsure about their future. “I have worked for Shoprite for the past five years, with a family to feed. Things are now hard, because we don’t know where we are going to work,” said one Shoprite employee. With banks and adjacent businesses completely destroyed at the mall, Ammie Maleka and Mapule Matjeke were busy clearing up the debris at the Batho-Pele pharmacy. “Four people worked here to assist in sales and medical dispensing. They will now be out of work for who knows how long. Things are now going to be very tough for everyone,” Maleka lamented.

• Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Brian Sokutu at The Citizen

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