KwaDukuza residents rise from the ashes [Watch]

Faced with large-scale devastation KwaDukuza residents across all strata of society came together to clean the town last week.

Although the streets were cleaned of litter, many storefronts on King Shaka Street were left desolated and open, as if it was not worth the effort and cost to re-secure them.

These stores were hit on Monday, July 12 by a angry mob that ran riot on the town, said Decor owner, Ebrahim Tootla.

“On Monday we were shell-shocked,” he said of business owners who had desperately tried to protect their livelihoods.

“By Wednesday we were on top of things. You had to protect one spot and then slowly move outwards to protect your street.”

A group of store owners on Hulett Street banded together to hold off the looters, staying awake for days at a time. Tootla barricaded his store with planks for extra safety.

Other stores were not so lucky. Chester Meats on King Shaka Street – one of the biggest butcheries in KwaDukuza – was cleaned out despite having security on scene.

“There were guys stationed outside the door but the crowd just became too large for them to handle. The cops were overwhelmed so most stores were left to fend for themselves,” said store manager, Kevin Murray.

A fire was started in the basement, but was contained and did not spread. “I would say with the stock and machinery we lost, cost something north of R3 million.”

As a big company, however, Chester Meats will rebuild and continue to employ their staff. But many smaller stores may not be able to afford reopening.

iLembe Chamber of Commerce vice-president and landlord of many looted buildings in KwaDukuza, Shain Manjoo said this would be his focus.

“The priority for everyone who lives on the North Coast is to ensure that something like this never happens again. We don’t need new malls, we need new industry so that everyone can prosper. The incidents point towards societal and leadership issues that urgently need to be addressed.”

He reinforced the need to deal with complex societal issues in a forward thinking manner, rather than being forced to be reactive.

“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.”

Ward 5 resident, Dipo Mkhize, was one such person who rallied Lindelani residents to aid in clean up efforts and the group 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 cannot do anything, we can’t even buy bread right now,” she said.

By Monday, July 19, most businesses that were able to had reopened, often with boards taking the place of broken storefronts.

As the community wrests with its identity, a new normalcy was slowly returning.

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