The City of Johannesburg reveals civil services have been disrupted, infrastructure damaged and municipal staff intimidated over the past few days of looting.
City speaker Nonceba Molwele said police and metro police had been manning uncontrolled looting in the city since the unrest began. It was not clear what the role of the deployed army would be, with most malls having been emptied. Not only have city services been disrupted, but there was a problem of township residents struggling to get bread and essentials like petrol.
“There are services that have been suspended; our truck was used to break into the supermarket in Jabulani Mall. As soon as there is calm, our services will be restored. This is unfortunate because it is putting our communities at a disadvantage, because they are looking for services,” Molwele said.
While City officials were doing interviews with different media houses, the looting continued in Orange Farm, Soweto, Diepsloot and Alexandra. Some looters were reportedly using e-hailing services to carry looted goods, while some looters had driven into malls with their cars.
Mboma Mboma