For my followers who may want to know,
I will not be posting for an indeterminate amount of time due to the civil unrest in KZN, South Africa. We are currently experiencing riots and civil unrest unlike the country has seen in many years and comparable to the unrest preceding the abolishment of the Apartheid regime in the 1990s.
CONTENT WARNING FOR ALL FOLLOWING THIS BANNER: DEATH, VIOLENCE, CRIME, RACISM, POLICE
On Friday, July 9th 2021 (5 days ago as of writing this) widespread protests in KZN spontaneously began in response to the arrest of our ex-president Jacob Zuma, whom we impeached in his second presidential term due to the embezzlement of government funds and other corruption related charges.
There is only now beginning to be international news coverage of the protests, as death tolls rise towards 100 confirmed. But we, the citizens and residents of South Africa, are in much the same position as you in terms of access to information. There is minimal coverage on the internet, and those of us without televisions (tha majority of the population) are left to scour the recesses of Facebook for any videos of what is currently happening near us.
I am making this post, not to raise money for those suffering from the resulting food shortages or those without insurance suffering from great property damage, because as far as I know there is no way for anyone to receive help in the current situation. I am merely making this post to show the rest of the world what is going on and shed light on possible motivations behind the events of the last five days.
Starting on Thursday, the grounds surrounding the former president's home were filled by protesters aiming to prevent the rightful and long-awaited arrest of Jacob Zuma on charge of Contempt of Court due to him missing all court dates related to his prosecution on the grounds of corruption. Most of the country and people I know were baffled by this protesting. To give you more context, should you need it, I will list the crimes I know of that he has been charged/formally accused with (I'm sure I'm missing some):
1) The sexual assault of a number of women in the late 1990s to 2000s (I am unsure of the exact timeline or number of victims, I'll leave that up to you to research if you're interested). This charge was relegated to the side when the ANC (most popular political party) chose him as their next presidential candidate.
2) The embezzlement/inappropriate use of government funds (including tax payer money). Notably used to finance the construction of his personal home, Nkandla, an extravagant mansion-type house.
3) Corruption within the government pertaining to nepotism and cronyism in the employment of government officials.
4) Corruption in the government pertaining to collusion and/or acceptance of bribery (I am unsure of the exact legal details) from the Gupta family in India.
5) Corruption pertaining to either the encouragement of or negligence in allowing fund embezzlement and corruption of lesser government officials.
6) Finally, the charge that he was arrested on, Friday night, Contempt of court.
As you can hopefully see, there is practically no ground on which to protest his arrest. However, many people of South Africa have an unwavering loyalty to any and all members of the ANC political party due to their large and symbolic role in the liberation of South Africa from Apartheid. Many believe that this automatically makes the party and it's members the best choice for leadership despite the many recent instances of corruption within the party (though this does not well-represent eveey member of the party).
Now that context is established, I will carry on explaining the situation.
Though minor protests have been occurring since Friday, it was on Monday 12 July that it truly escalates to civil unrest. Tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of people flocked to commercial centres within KZN in very early morning and late the previous night. Grocery stores along with any and every commercial entity in reach was plundered for goods. Many of the rioters were armed (with guns as well as other weapons), despite our strict laws. This includes small tuck shops and stores in residential areas. I, personally, know two people who's community stores were looted on Monday. One of whom neighbours the home-business.
He was unable to leave his house until later that night/the next day, due to the danger the hundreds of swarming people posed and because they blocked the roads.
Still on Monday, the unrest spread to Gauteng province and the true destruction began in full. Countless shopping centres and grocery chains were completely looted and burned to the ground.
Two of my classmates had to evacuate their homes due to the onslaught and many others I know are without food at this very moment.
Currently, neighbourhoods have taken it upon themselves to defend their areas with barricades and patrols of cars to ensure their communities' safety. This is in the wake of the deployment of the South African National Defence Force to KZN yesterday (Tuesday 13th July). Unfortunately, it has been reported that both private security and the SANDF have been instructed not to fire on the violent protesters (whether with intent to disperse or not). This has lead to the increase from 10 confirmed civilian deaths on Monday to the 72 that were reported this morning.
The majority, if not all, of the current mortalities have been caused by the protesters' violent actions on communities they pass through to reach the commercial centres.
At this point, the riot violence has escalated to racially-focused violence against the comparatively high (to other provinces) Indian population of KZN. I cannot speak for other provinces, but anti-indian rhetoric among the rioters (who are majority if not completely black, as expected in a country with a majority black population). Black people have taken to social media to incite further violence against Indians for supposedly "siding with the whites during Apartheid" (which is categorically untrue as they were also extremely oppressed under the racist regime). Predominantly Indian areas in KZN have been described as warzones, as dead line the streets and homes are set alight.
While the rioters and sympathisers currently cite "the systematic and unfair social and financial marginalisation of black people" as the reason behind the prolific looting, this can be said to be untrue, due to the indescriminate theft of goods (predominantly non-essential goods like alcohol, televisions, etc.).
At the moment, a large reason behind the current riots is clear: opportunistic crime. Many of the looters are not financially disadvantaged and many financially disadvantaged people (speaking from experience) have not participated in the rioting. In fact, the rioting has impacted those who are truly disenfranchised the most, due to the lack of access to food, both because of the danger posed by leaving the relative safety of their homes and because most grocery stores have been cleared out . Those that have not, have closed down to try and defend against looters.
The government has not handled this situation well either. Yesterday, following the large scale violence experienced by the nation, the current President, Cyril Ramaphosa, addressed the nation about the situation. He requested that the rioting stop and that the "racially targeted vigilanteism" cease as well. He is referring to communities defending their private property as said vigilanteism. It is not, in fact, racially targeted, as I'm hope you can clearly see by this point.
At the very moment I'm writing this, more attempts are being made at the still untouched malls (most of which are within a kilometre of my home). I am scared, I am sad and I am, dare I say, angry. If our government had taken action to protect its citizens earlier and not been content to let this violence continue, many deaths would have been averted, many livelihoods could have been saved (the majority of businesses do not have insurance) and the tragedy that has yet to fully come to pass, could have been minimised.
I invite any South Africans to share their experiences in reblogs or comments and request that comments from people who are not involved in this situation remain to the minimum in order to facilitate communication of facts and experiences between those experiencing this situation right now. There is a lot of speculation surrounding further reasons behind the riots (ranging from political coups to gang interference), so I also request that any speculation be kept to tags or clearly marked as speculation/not fact.
To any fellow South Africans reading this, try to stay indoors, plan for the worst, but hope for the best and take care of those you care for. It is on that note that I will end this post.
I will not be reblogging anything that is not about this situation, but I will try to update this post with any new events that come to light, personal to national.
Please reblog to raise awareness.
Stay safe everyone.
