According to Bloomberg News, South Africans are expected to face major food shortages in the wake of days of violent unrest across two key provinces, as rioters upend supply chains by looting supermarkets and torching goods trucks.
Dairy farmers in KwaZulu-Natal have had to pour hundreds of thousands of liters of milk down the drain since the riots began.
According to Colin Wellbeloved, a milk producer in the Boston area of KwaZulu-Natal and chairperson of the South African Milk Producers’ Organization, he and his neighbors have had to destroy 60,000 liters of milk over the past two days, because they were unable to distribute it.
According to people familiar with the situation in South Africa:
“National warehouse situated in KwaZulu-Natal, the biggest food distribution center in Africa and South Africa, is being looted to the bone by thousands of looters. This is the central nerve center for bulk food distribution in KZN supplying Shoprite, Checkers, Woolworths, SPAR, and Game. This means not only retail but even the bulk supply food channels are being destroyed in KZN. There will be starvation and famine in KZN as early as next week. Shops that are open are running out of stock, due to panic buying. They cannot be restocked. This is going to be the biggest food crisis in Africa since the Ethiopian Famine in 1984. There is no bread, meat, milk, petrol, and other essential supplies in most parts of Durban. KZN is literally burning to the ground. Wealthy families are evacuating KZN while they can heading to safer provinces. No police or military insight. Where police are present they watch the looters without lifting a finger.”
The South African Petroleum Refinery announced it was temporarily closing due to the riots and unrest. Rioters were seen looting gas stations at considerable risk.
“We are running out of fuel here because the refineries shut down”, farm attack survivor Mariandra Heunis told Gateway Pundit from Gauteng Province. “People are panic buying here so stores are running empty. It’s a mess. In KwaZulu-Natal, it’s horrific. People are asking for help with food. There are no shops left. The ones that are left have no stock.”
Meanwhile, it appears there is a race war brewing in the African nation. Indians and whites have been shooting black rioters dead in the streets in retaliation, while black political leaders are encouraging black rioters to “invade Indian and white communities and kill everyone.”
“Across the province, in many predominantly white suburbs, armed neighborhood watch members are cordoning off roads and have taken it upon themselves to determine who may come through.
They want to ensure that when all this is over, they will still have their shops and businesses intact.
Unlike during the dreaded 1980s and 1990s, the criminals roving from one mall to another have no fear of the police or the soldiers.
Meanwhile, residents are taking it upon themselves to protect their properties and communities because the government is helpless and afraid to declare a state of emergency lest it is compared to its apartheid predecessors.”
A recording of an Indian woman calling for help went viral on Telegram on Wednesday. In the video, you can hear the woman screaming as their houses in the area are being shot at.
Other videos show hundreds of black rioters allegedly heading toward the Phoenix SA area which is predominantly an Indian sector.
South African police and the army grapple to bring order to impoverished areas in Gauteng and Kwa-Zulu-Natal provinces that have been hit by rioting and theft sparked by Zuma’s imprisonment last week.
More than 200 violent incidents happened overnight, the government said.
The deployment of soldiers to support the police did not seem to deter looters.
The BBC filmed a baby being thrown from the first floor of a building in Durban that was on fire after ground-floor shops were looted.
Zuma, 79, was convicted of contempt of court last month after failing to attend an inquiry into corruption during his presidency.
He handed himself into police last Wednesday to start serving his 15-month prison sentence, but this sparked violent protests, arson attacks, and opportunistic looting in his home province of KwaZulu-Natal.
The protests spread to other towns and cities, including Johannesburg.
President Cyril Ramaphosa has described it as some of the worst violence South Africa has witnessed since the 1990s.
