Although many communities around the North Coast have been devastated by the events of the past week, they remain intact and willing to band together to move forward.

In the short term, this often means the basic cleaning of debris which still litters many streets and broken storefronts.

In KwaDukuza a number of residents across all strata of society started clean-up operations in earnest yesterday.

KwaDukuza was one of the worst hit areas during the riots and access to the town was difficult given constant road closures at the Umvoti Toll and on the R102.

When the Courier visited yesterday, the clean-up was already well underway and you could be forgiven for thinking that many stores were unharmed, but for the empty shelves and broken windows.

Residents from within KwaDukuza and the surrounding areas alike were active on the streets with business owners and employees both picking up brooms.

“I am an ANC member and I believe that Zuma is happy that we are standing up for him. I don’t think he is proud of the way we did it. The looting and vandalising is wrong and it was sad to see my hometown being torn apart. I had no choice but to come and clean and I am happy to see that other residents are doing the same,” said Rocky Park resident, Randolph Swartebeooi.

Ward 5 resident, Dipo Mkhize, rallied residents of Lindelani to aid clean up efforts and the group have spent two full days working in KwaDukuza.

“Everybody knows that we are under this disaster so we decided as the community of ward 5 to come and clean up our town of KwaDukuza, because we are not happy about what happened in our area.

“We are suffering now as all shops are looted and we can’t do anything, we can’t even buy bread right now, it is a very bad situation. That is why we decided to clean up our town so that shop owners will be able to reinstate their shops,” said Mkhize.

KwaDukuza mayor, Dolly Govender also joined the clean-up yesterday morning, helping to clean up King Shaka street towards the KwaDukuza Town Hall.

KwaDukuza Municipality clean up services were also active throughout the town during the Courier’s visit.

iLembe Chamber of Commerce vice-president and landlord of looted buildings in KwaDukuza, Shain Manjoo, stayed positive while assessing the situation.

“The priority for everyone who lives on the North Coast is to ensure that something like this never happens again.

“The incidents point towards societal and leadership issues that urgently need to be addressed. I have spoken to residents, business owners and representatives of the taxi association, we are all confident that our town will rise again,” he said.

He reinforced the need to deal with complex societal issues in a forward thinking manner, rather than being forced to be reactive in situations like the riots of the past week.

“We don’t need new malls, we need new industry so that everyone can prosper.

Following discussions with residents from all of the communities around Stanger, we have found that we are all likeminded and looking to reach the same goals.

“Heads up to the community that have rallied together over the past few days to have complex discussions openly and to stand together to clean-up.”

On the way to KwaDukuza, the Courier also witnessed clean up operations at the northbound petrol station at Umvoti Toll.

The entire station was cleaned out and Steers, Spar KwikStop, Bean Tree and 4 ATM’s lay in pieces. A fuel tanker was also burnt.

Residents from the surrounding area were doing their best to clean up.

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