Some residents in areas affected by the July riots have lost their livelihoods, have to travel far to get to the jobs that remain and walk long distances to unaffected shopping centres.
Two months after the July riots, when more than 300 people died in just a few days, communities are still counting the cost. Thousands of people who lost their jobs as a result of the unrest are feeling the full brunt of a lack of income and many families are struggling to find the supplies they previously got from local shops.
Frank Apprey, 32, manages his brother’s Sedglo hair and beauty salon at the Mega City mall. Their premises were cleaned out. They were robbed of R52 000 cash from the till, he said, as well as 15 chairs, eight hairdryers, nine hair clippers, a flatscreen television and home theatre set, cupboards, relaxer, hair pieces, shampoo and other salon items.
Aphiwe Nxasana, 24, worked at the Gym Company. She used to walk from Reunion, south of Durban, where she rents a room, to her job at Mega City mall. Anna Mbihli, 39, considers herself lucky to still have a job. She was working at Fashion Fusion at Theshopping centre. After the shop was looted, she transferred to a branch in the city centre, about 22km away.
“We now work between two and three days a week. We don’t do much because there is no traffic coming here. We hate what happened and wish it doesn’t happen again. Now we can hardly afford to pay rent for the rooms we rent at the informal settlement, let alone to send money for our parents and children to eat at our rural homes. Worst of all, I shudder to think what will happen to us if the mall doesn’t open and this service station has to close as a result,” she said.
A 27-year-old woman from Umlazi U section, who also asked to remain anonymous, said she participated in looting Philani Valley Mall. “It was peer pressure, really. I took food items, but now our mall is gone.”Several towns in KwaZulu-Natal were affected in different ways. IFP supporters armed themselves and stood guard to prevent looting in the former provincial capital of Ulundi. But they were too late to prevent the looting and torching of nearby Nongoma, another IFP-run municipality.
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