With all the looting and riots that happened last week, it’s no surprise that all law enforcement entities in KZN have been deployed to certain areas in various towns and cities to safeguard the province from another possible attack.
From what started out as public disruption by the Jacobists (pro-Zuma supporters) in an effort to free their leader from police custody, turned in to a widespread debate of the hungry vs the full and poor vs rich.
This narrative was birthed when looting found its way into the Jacobist revolution.
While some were stealing essentials like bread, milk, mielie-meal and various other foods, others went all in stealing appliances big and small, from fridges, microwaves, cellphones, laptops and flat screen televisions.
The outcry from one half of the public lambasted the events as criminal, while the other half believed it was “the poor rising to eat from the rich”.
It’s easy for one to look at hunger and starvation as a foreign concept, however in a country like South Africa, one need not even drive for more than hour from where they live (in any part of the country) to see extreme cases of poverty.
The notion that South Africans may not be all that starving is based on propaganda and western media that has sold us the idea that a true hungry or starving person is the stereotypical depiction of a naked African child with kwashiorkor.
That is not the case.
There are many people in townships that neighbour prestigious suburbs that maybe eat only three times a week because of food rationing.
Many families rely on children’s grants to support the whole family.
It’s easy to say that one’s choices led them to that position, however one cannot overlook the lack of work opportunities, and the lack of education required for one to understand starting and running a business.
Many people argue that looting will only leave the poor even more hungrier than they were before. The truth is if one already knows hunger, and has had to live and grow up in its environment, you cannot scare or threaten them with more hunger.
Greed is what led to looting warehouses, hunger is what led to looting supermarkets.
Under the law both are illegal, but a moral level of understanding can be offered to those who stole food.
Is looting a supermarket justified? No.
Can there be a logical and understandable (not reasonable) explanation? Yes.
HAVE YOUR SAY
Like the South Coast Herald’s Facebook page, follow us on Twitter and Instagram
