Burned metal ransacked after fire
Large sheets of corrugated iron were pulled off what once was a roof and iron security gates were ripped off their hinges
Word of the burned buildings got out early on Tuesday morning and members of the community immediately started helping themselves to scrap metal.
On Monday evening, December 13 a fire tore through various shops in the Pat Prop Centre in Haig Street in the Central Business District (CBD) of eMalahleni, leaving nothing but a shell of burned, twisted metal. 
By Tuesday morning, December 14 members of the community were seen ransacking the buildings of metal and debris.
Large sheets of corrugated iron were pulled off what once was a roof and iron security gates were ripped off their hinges and carried away on trolleys.
Mr Stephanus Coetzee, owner of the Macarena shop and his family with some of his employees were standing around trying to protect what was left of his shop.
Other shops in the centre that were also destroyed in the fire are a hair salon a furniture shop and a tool shop.
“Emalahleni means City of Coal. After the fire, the community is helping themselves to the debris which can also be said to be coal. Is this morally wrong? I don’t know, because what is left is going to land up in the scrapyard anyway,” said Mr Tamsanqa Nqwenya, a bystander.
The Law Enforcement Unit from Emalahleni City Council was called in to assist with the crowd control and then a tractor was called in break down the building.
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