Road to recovery has begun in Mams
“There is a big element of organised crime. The police are looking into the possibility that organised gangs in the area were part of the looting.”
The road leading to economic recovery in Mamelodi has begun.
Residents of Mamelodi East and Mamelodi West joined forces to protect shopping malls and stand together against looting earlier this week.
The residents took it upon themselves to save Mamelodi after hundreds of jobs were lost overnight following incidents of looting at Mams mall and Denlyn mall.
On Wednesday morning hundreds of residents residing next to the Mams mall, including small children, started a clean-up campaign at the mall and removed burning tyres and stones in front of the mall.
Solly Sefako from Germ Valley Masters said, “we thought of assisting our mall because this is where we do our shopping”.
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“We want to help the mall to recover very quickly and have the mall working again for our children to get job opportunities,” said Sefako.
Residents used their own tools to clean all the entrances of Mams mall and Solomon Mahlangu Road.
While in Mamelodi West, stakeholders from ward 67 and 38 including Sanco, taxi associations, #Notinmyname and community patrolling forum geared up to protect Denlyn shopping mall day and night.
Minister of Police Bheki Cele also visited Mams mall and Tshwane Regional mall in Mamelodi on Wednesday.
The visit came after unrest and looting. He went to assess the extent of the damage.
Minister Cele said police need to go and look beyond what was happening with looting.
“There is a big element of organised crime. The police are looking into the possibility that organised gangs in the area were part of the looting,” said Cele.
Owner of Tshwane regional mall Shadrack Mthethwa said they hired a well-trained security company to protect the mall.
“I’m very grateful for the security company for saving the economy of the township and jobs,” said Mthethwa.
“This mall is off-limits for looting or any other crime. The security is heavily armed and not afraid to used it. We have beefed up our security,” said owner of Maudi Matlakala security, Steerman Monageng.
Centre manager of Denlyn mall, Clifford Madishane said the mall closed earlier on Monday following threats of looting.
However, that would not prevent the community members from looting.
“We have been fighting with groups after groups from 18:00 until the 04:00 morning who were looting at the mall,” said Madishane.
“From our side we are doing our best we can to safeguard our tenants and our customers. That’s why we are not going to open the mall today. What happens today will determine tomorrow,” said Madishane.
“About eight shops were looted last night and we want to give the guys an opportunity to fix their stores.”
Annah Hlaku (45), a shop owner said she lost everything she owned in the store in a matter of minutes.
She started her business from scratch and it took about five years for her business to grow.
Tshwane mayor Randall Williams said the Tshwane metro was calling for no looting and criminality, following the arrest of more than 100 suspects in connection with looting and vandalism.
He said he was pleased to report that law enforcement teams, TMPD and the SAPS have made over 100 arrests in the last 24 hours for public violence, theft and possession of stolen goods.
“We will not tolerate criminality in the capital city and our law enforcement teams will move swiftly to arrest and prosecute those who attempt to instigate chaos,” said Williams.
He added that the law enforcement teams remain on high alert and will continue to monitor high risk areas with the interest of protecting residents, saving property and maintaining law and order.
Eddie Mnguni of Mamelodi East CPF said they condemn the barbaric acts and this has nothing to do with politics.
He said it is about time the community of Mamelodi unite with law enforcement and fight for Mamelodi.
Mamelodi has three malls namely Denlyn mall, Mams mall and the newly built Tshwane Regional mall.
Out of these Mams mall is the one that experienced the most damage with a number of shops looted.
Denlyn mall is back in business and Tshwane Regional mall will reopen on Friday.
Mams mall will remain closed until further notice.
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