I don’t actually know how to address last week’s looting up north.
So much has already been said.
My heart bled especially hard for the fact that it happened leading up to Mandela Day yesterday – the 101st birthday of the man celebrated the world over for the exact opposite of what the riots represent.
Seeing masses of fellow South Africans casually walk off with everything from fridges and TVs, to clothing and whole sheep was a despairing sight.
And then to see photos and videos of the destruction left in their wake – ATMs ripped open, doors torn off their hinges, barren shelves, glass fronts shattered and the smoking remains of torched buildings and vehicles.
It was like dystopian scenes from a zombie apocalypse movie – the sort of thing that directors pay a lot of money to recreate authentically.
Perhaps it’s best to try and unpack what some of the root causes are of what we witnessed, in an attempt at avoiding a recurrence.
Yes there are the issues of ongoing poverty and lack of opportunity.
Add in failing municipalities and parastatals, politicians living in opulence amid rampant corruption, loadshedding despite the never-ending increases in rates and taxes, spiralling crime, increasing food insecurity and now a restrictive pandemic.
These things are tough to deal with one at a time, when they happen individually.
But when they all materialise at the same time, then you have the perfect storm, which can reveal itself in the collective social unrest like what we saw.
After more than a generation of politicians asking our vulnerable citizens to be patient, it’s understandable that they have lost hope and are despairing that they will ever experience any measure of material comfort in their lifetime.
Not only do these circumstances erode away at one’s dignity and self-respect, but also respect for justice and the lives and property of others.
It is impossible to remedy all these serious challenges in one go, which is why it’s so crucial that the government tackle them as and when they rear their heads.
Last week’s pillaging chaos is a direct result of failure to do so.
And those who say they are not surprised by what they saw, because South Africa was being a backward and lawless society, note that mass looting has occurred in some of the most advanced and developed countries in the world.
In 2011, the UK went through a wave of sporadic violence, with people setting vehicles alight in the streets and openly looting around 2500 shops and businesses.
Three years ago we saw similar scenes of violence, torched infrastructure and looting out of Paris, France – the birthplace of democracy and a beacon of first-world utopic prosperity.
A year later, dozens of youngsters senselessly plundered a high-end store in the Canadian city of Montreal.
Just last year, while Australia was combating devastating fires, several people were arrested for looting fire-damaged properties, while Germans looted stores at around the same time.
A few months later, America experienced widespread violence and mass raiding of businesses around the George Floyd protests.
In the same time period, there were riots and looting of differing scales in Sweden, Belgium, Spain and Greece.
There have been others elsewhere in the world, but I highlight these because they happened in countries that we generally hold in high regard as examples of social harmony.
And in most cases, these countries see riots like this every few years.
So go easy on our one singular example.