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Food-riots in Durban: 3 supermarkets looted

 

Shoprite, Checkers and Pick’n Pay supermarkets at Durban shopping mall looted simultaneously by hundreds of people from the “Unemployed People’s Movement’…

  • Growing anger against white community about forced removal of 5,000+ Early Morning Market traders from July 31 to make way for upmarket mall…

  LootingOfDurbanShopsJustTheStartJoblessRiotersWarnJuly232009 2009-07-22 Durban - Members of the so-named Unemployed People's Movement (together with the Abahlali baseMjondolo shackdwellers movement) went on the rampage on Wednesday afternoon looting shops at the upmarket Durban central railway station’s Workshop Shopping Mall,  police said.

Earlier in the week, this same group had threatened to ‘destroy shops in KwaZulu-Natal if the government failed to meet their demands for a monthly R1,500 grant – within seven days, for all unemployed people’. They said 26-million people were now unemployed in South Africa.

Only some 50 people were  arrested during these well-organised food-riots, during which  “many hundreds”  of poor people had stormed three top supermarkets simultaneously: Shoprite, Checkers and Pick n Pay.  Police captain Khephu Ndlovu said they had been monitoring the situation and 34 women, 15 men were arrested.

Many of these protestors are very angry – especially against the local white community – for the prospect of losing their  long-term trading jobs because Durban city is bulldozing their Early Morning Market to make way for an upmarket, luxury shopping mall. This leaves many of the city’s poorest people without any permanent form of income. A week earlier, this group had issued an ultimatum at Durban city hall to give them a monthly R1,500 grant – since the city was going  to destroy their livelihood by plans to raze the Early-Morning Market where they earned their money – or they would start destroying shops in KZN. City manager Ratcliffe – a white man – refused to show up to accept their ultimatum. And because Ratcliffe is also putting white metropolitan policemen (the videos below show this in great detail)  into the front-line when dealing with these protesters, it’s also the white people of Durban who are getting all the blame.

UnemployedDurbanThreatToBurnDownShopsTownshipsJuly3009SowetanThuliDlamini"Earlier today (Wednesday) we received information that the organisation was going to hold an illegal march. We then decided to deploy our members in town to monitor the situation," Ndlovu said. Ndlovu said 35 women and 15 men were arrested at Shoprite and 50 people were arrested at Pick n Pay at a major tourist attraction: the Workshop shopping mall. He said they would be charged with “looting and theft.”

Picture left of Unemployed People’s Movement protestors was taken by Thuli Dlamini of The Sowetan.

This mall was constructed around the original 100-year-old SA Railways’ workshop for the Durban Station in 1986 and has since then, become an upmarket, very popular tourism attraction because of its unique display of steam trains.

Earlier in the week, the group had threatened to ‘destroy shops in KwaZulu-Natal if the government failed to meet their demands for a monthly R1,500 grant – within seven days, for all unemployed people’.

‘More than 26-m unemployed people in South Africa…’

17 July 2009 report by Sowetan journalist: Canaan Mdletshe

Unemployed people have vowed to destroy shops in KwaZulu-Natal if the government fails to meet their demands within seven days .  The group, representing the unemployed in KwaZulu-Natal, threatened to ‘set townships alight and unleash an army of looters on shops’ unless all jobless people received a basic income grant of R1500 ($150) a month.

The country will soon be in flames…

National spokeswoman for the SA Unemployed People’s Movement, Ms Nozipho Mteshana, said their survey found that more than 26-million unemployed people in South Africa, more than half of the population.

  • Mteshana said the country would soon be in flames if the government failed to do something because people’s anger could not be contained much longer.

We will let people loot all the big shops…

Durban Workshop Shopping Mall looted by huge crowd July 22 2009“We give our government and eThekwini municipality, which is our focus at this point, seven days to give us answers.” The group has handed the municipality a memorandum of their grievances.

  • “If we don’t get positive answers by next Wednesday we will let people loot all the big shops and take whatever food they find in those shops. If this is the only language our government understands, then we will speak it very loudly,” she warned.

Mteshana said most of their members were young tertiary graduates. They were fed up with “ANC pals and the same people getting tenders” while others went hungry.She said in a country where pensions were granted only at 60 it pained her to note that most unemployed people were between 18 and 35.

Crime was escalating because people were hungry. “Hungry stomachs are angry stomachs, which is why we feel that unemployed people should be provided with a basic income grant. Our government has money but it is not prioritised properly.”

Economic expert Bonke Dumisa said it was unreal to expect an economic solution to these problems. “Business can’t do it. Business is in the business of making money with as few people as possible, given the economic downturn.”He said the answers lay with the politicians and their will to deal with the real unemployment figures. http://www.sowetan.co.za/News/Article.aspx?id=1035297

Protesters besiege Durban city hall

Manager Sutcliffe refuses to take memos:

A day earlier, on July 16, 2009 the Daily News journalist SLINDILE MALULEKA reported that ‘a peaceful march almost turned violent yesterday when more than 1,000 protesters waited three hours for city officials to receive a memorandum outside the Durban City Hall. The protesters, including disgruntled bus drivers who lost their livelihood from the collapse of the public Remant Alton bus contract with the municipality.”

  • And all these people got together on Wednesday, and started plundering the Durban supermarkets. 

Urgent interdict against Durban city to stop closure of Early Morning Market:

Early Morning Market The Inkatha Freedom Party meanwhile, has issued an urgent call to Durban city manager Sutcliffe to immediately shelve their plans to bulldoze the century-old Early Morning Market and remove all the long-term traditional traders from this central site on July 31. Its spokesman M. Joshua Mazibuko said the party is lodging an urgent interdict against the municipality to stop the market from being closed down, has organised a protest rally on July 26 at Albert Park, and is urging people to ‘swarm all over the market on July 31 to stop officials from implementing their plans’.

IMazibuko said it was ‘unfortunate that the ANC-led eThekwini (Durban) Municipality appears determined to go ahead with the shut-down of the Early Morning Market on 31st July despite our calls for a stop to this process until negotiations spearheaded by the 3-MEC Committee have been completed.”

He also slammed the collapse of the Remnant Alton bus contract,. “Right now, multitudes of learners, workers and other users of public transport are left without busses despite assurances that busses would begin this last Monday.
We want to declare that the IFP is not about to back down on our campaign until the municipality has done justice on these two issues; and our determination grows as the challenges grow. The IFP has asked the Office of the Public
Protector for in investigation ‘into millions of rands of the tax-payers' money which the Municipality ploughed into
the Remnant Alton Bus company.’

Mazibuko said the MEC for Local Government, Mr. Willis Mchunu, is also being ‘urged to use his office to persuade the municipality to institute this independent investigation.”

They are also planning a protest rally on Sunday, July 26 at Albert Park in Durban “ to show our indignation against the municipality and our solidarity with the traders of the Early Morning Market and consumers, and also with the millions
who are negatively affected by the collapse of the Remnant Bus company. “ sources: Inkatha Freedom Party press release and http://www.dailynews.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=5085725

Sources:

Why are all these people so angry – specifically at white people?

Eviction of Early Morning Market in Durban is a disgrace http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lP-hDdmaHUQ

Early Morning Market Traders see Durban city forced removal as a remnant of apartheid-era http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FxEmtZv6rd8

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