WATCH: Chaos a ‘ticking time bomb’ we should have seen coming

The team of police officers arriving at Diepkloof Square shopping centre in Diepkloof, Soweto, showed incredible resolve in keeping straight faces, while one of the looters they arrested early on Tuesday morning pleaded to be released.

“Please! I’ve still got a future! I’m only 12 years old,” she wailed, right after being caught red-handed rummaging through the scraps left behind by earlier marauders in one of the centre’s grocery shops.

Though the visuals and photographs from similar scenes were full of pre-teens and youngsters joining in on the looting, it was very clear to every single cop and journalist there that this girl, however, had to be at least five or six years older than she claimed.

This means she was most likely one of the country’s lost youngsters, many of whom simply don’t finish school, or who do make it through matric only to join the dire unemployment statistics.

She continued putting on an over-the-top show of contrition, kneeling, praying and promising to be a good girl, if only they let her go home.

Though all approximately the same age, the group of men and women arrested alongside her were more resigned to their fate, almost as if they had long since given up hope of the bright future she believed she still had ahead of her.

ALSO READ: No light at the end of SA’s unemployment tunnel

Since the prospects of getting a job in a country with an unemployment rate of 32.6% are rather slim and have become even more so since Covid-19 throat-punched our economy, they would have been forgiven for giving up hope.

One can only assume that it is this lack of hope for anything but a miserable future which would drive thousands of young people to line the streets of KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng and risk it all for some free food, a few OLED TVs, chest freezers, or even a few KFC deep fryers for those who lift.

These are, of course just some of the items people have been seen looting in full view of police, military and television cameras, as if they have simply stopped caring about what could happen to them, as the unrest, which started out at the weekend as protests against the imprisonment of former President Jacob Zuma, continued.

More than R10 billion in damage estimated

The state-owned South African Special Risk Insurance Association (Sasria) is the only insurer that covers damage from public disorder events and the company was gearing up for billions in claims on Tuesday.

Sasria released a statement saying it would cover all legitimate claims and if you weren’t already positive about the future of South Africa, it reassured claimants it had included events such as this in its planning for 2021.

ALSO READ: Sasria already gearing up to pay out protest-related claims

Fareedah Benjamin, executive manager of insurance operations, said Sasria had already appointed claims adjusters to start looking at the situation on the ground, though it was apparently too early to estimate the total cost of repairing the damage.

The Property Owners Association of South Africa (SAPOA), which consists of owners of many of the country’s malls and commercial properties, however, made a few calculations of its own.

It said the estimated damage to shopping centres, which “are first in line with regards to looting”, would cost at least R10 billion to repair.

It also believes that the 2,500 SANDF members deployed to help quell the violence falls far short of what is needed.

Neil Gopal, SAPOA CEO, said in a statement: “We appeal to the presidency to significantly increase the number of soldiers to be deployed with immediate effect.

“Disturbingly, we are also seeing food distribution centres in Durban being looted and destroyed. This will further exacerbate the crisis and have lasting implications on our food security and the food chain in general. Even if we can get distribution centres to deliver to our supermarkets, it will not be possible for the public to purchase goods at malls that have already been burnt and vandalised, or simply closed due to threats of violence.”

Security cluster confident in law enforcement’s ability

In an attempt to calm fears, such as those expressed by Gopal and SAPOA, the country’s security cluster ministers held a joint briefing on Tuesday afternoon.

Here State Security Minister Ayanda Dlodlo informed the country that former senior State Security Agency (SSA) and ANC members aligned to Zuma had been identified as key instigators of the violence which started in KwaZulu-Natal.

Dlodlo was at pains to assure the country that despite how bad the situation is, it could have been worse.

She said State Security and Crime Intelligence machinery were working on “overdrive”, with police having thwarted multiple larger threats.

“We refuse to acknowledge that there was spectacular failure of intelligence. Intelligence has done what it could. We have supplied information to law enforcement to do its work […] There was information that we missed here and there, but it is not as if there was spectacular failure from intelligence leading to the fact that police could not effect arrests,” she said.

ALSO READ: Riots are the government’s chickens coming home to roost

And, as if lured out by news that looters were transporting alcohol, Police Minister Bheki Cele also finally made an appearance during the briefing, after several days of radio silence.

Cele said there was “strong surveillance” on the ground ensuring there is no further deterioration of the situation and the government had confidence that “law-enforcement agencies are able to do their job effectively”.

“We cannot allow anyone to make a mockery of our democratic state and we have instructed the law enforcement agencies to double their efforts to stop the violence and to increase deployment on the ground,” Cele said.

A ‘ticking time bomb’

But for all the criticism of law enforcement’s inability to recognise the threats and warning signs before the drama, the rest of the country should probably also ask themselves why they did not see it coming.

Sebotseng Matsime, a small business owner in the Bara Mall, who had also lost everything to looters, said despite his loss, he could sympathise with them, since he had seen it coming.

“People are not working. People are hungry. People have many underlying issues which have been frustrating them and which were never addressed over the years,” he explained outside his bare shop.

“All of a sudden in Soweto, you have no electricity. Electricity is scarce. There [are] no jobs and one thing which we said when they started erecting so many malls in Soweto is, how do you erect so many malls, making Sowetans buyers and consumers, [but] you don’t create jobs for them?”

Matsime believes the drama was inevitable in a country of such glaring inequality and poverty, along with the lack of any brightness in their future for many of the young looters we’ve seen participating in the protests.

“People don’t have jobs. People want to buy these things. They don’t have money. They’re not working, you bring these flashy things next to them and they will wait for that moment to come. It was a ticking time bomb. It was bound to happen.”