Mams Mall looting: ‘The destruction is painful to see’

The sight of shattered glass and sounds of screaming shop alarms were just a few signs of the destruction left by opportunistic criminals targeting and looting the Mams Mall in Mamelodi, east of Pretoria.

During President Cyril Ramaphosa’s televised plea for peace on Monday, looters instead came out in their numbers to add to the destruction.

Stones and tyres were yesterday still blocking the roads and entrances to the mall while mall security, Tshwane Metro Police Department and members of the SA Police Service patrolled the area. Employees and shop owners stood helpless in front of damaged shopfronts.

Despite the glass being smashed, the mall’s motion-sensored doors continued to slide open and closed as police entered the property.

“This is very painful to see,” a takeaway shop owner, who wanted to remain anonymous, said about the destroyed shops.

“Most people, like employees, are from this area, and now the mall is going to be closed for one to two weeks. People have families to feed. That is all I could think about last night: how am I going to feed my family if they burn down the mall?” he asked.

His shop was spared, but outside the pharmacy, a group of seven employees stood in a circle and looked upon the destruction. They were too scared to be named in fear of being targeted but said when they arrived for work yesterday morning they found the pharmacy vandalised.

Shop mannequins, broken tills, plates, alcohol bottles and food were among the items scattered all shop entrances, the
parking lot and in the surrounding streets.

The butchery was also not spared in Monday night’s rampage, which saw looters targeting four ATMs located in the shop.

Afterwards, the butchery resembled a slaughterhouse with broken eggs and pieces of meat spread across the shop floor.

Moses Moshe is one of 51 employees working there – and he was uncertain about his future and that of his colleagues.

“I am about to lose my job, I feel negative,” he said.

Moshe, who has been working at the butchery since the mall opened in November 2018, said he had at least five to six people who depended on his income.

He tells of the horror of how he helplessly watched from his house as the mall was being looted.

“I live up there and can see everything down here. It started at about 6pm and went on until 10pm – that’s only when the police arrived,” he said.

“Look around you – these people don’t have hope. They are hopeless. We are landless, but at the same time, we are trying to make it better for everyone,” Moshe said in dismay.

– marizkac@citizen.co.za