Shell-shocked South Africans are asking for a state of emergency to be declared as communities across the country band together to protect their communities and local economy, but there are still reports of looting around Johannesburg, Pietermaritzburg and Durban.
The price of bread and milk has shot up in Durban.
Even the Durban branch of the South African Blood Service and the Durban distribution centre of FoodForwardSA, supplying food to many non-governmental organisations, have been ransacked.
Tweet by News24 reporters this morning
There are deep divisions within government and the African National Congress, with the deputy state security minister declaring political motives behind the attacks. South Africans have been wondering whether this is a coup attempt, debating the role of the country's indisputable problems with poverty and hunger while questioning the apparent sluggishness with which the rapidly-spreading unrest has been met. The Police Chief is yet to visit KwaZulu-Natal.
In Pimville, Soweto, residents stood guard at the entrances to Maponya Mall through the night, vowing to keep looters out while in other Gauteng townships looted goods are allegedly being confiscated from homes.
The death toll has risen to over 70, the majority due to looting-related accidents and stampedes.
Oil refinery declares force majeure
Durban ports, with the exception of Pier 2 which is semi-operational, remain shut down due to lack of labour. All trucking has been stood down, depots are closed and all coast-to-Gauteng rail corridors have been suspended. (In Port Elizabeth and Cape Town, the ports, depots and trucking remain fully operational.)
Sapref oil refinery in Durban, the country's largest, has declared a force majeure and long queues are forming outside fuel service stations in KwaZulu-Natal.
Right: the aftermath of looting outside a Durban warehouse: abandoned vehicles, warehousing equipment and consumer goods strewn about
All fuel used inland come from Durban. Automobile associations are cautioning South Africans against panic-buying, but fuel supplies will certainly be affected.
The N3 highway has re-opened from Gauteng to Harrismith KZN, but not beyond to the coast. On the N2 highway in northern KZN the toll gates are unstaffed, flung open, debris on the road.
Over 100 cell phone base stations have been damaged.
Avo exports disrupted
No farms have been affected, only numerous fires set in sugarcane fields around Illovo which seem to be isolated to that areas, but which has destroyed 353,000 tonnes of sugarcane, according to the sugarcane growers' association. Sugar mills have also been destroyed.
An avocado grower confirms that no damage to avocado pack sheds and infrastructure has been reported.
In Gauteng trade has picked up at the fresh produce market, while in Durban the fresh produce market is still closed but a market agent reports they’re expecting to resume work tomorrow. Vegetable farmers have been unable to move supply.
Farming communities are getting together and organising ad hoc fresh produce distribution to areas badly affected by food supply disruptions like Melmoth, Eshowe in Zululand and Richmond, Ixopo, Harding, Kokstad.
“It’s affected the majority of smaller towns in KwaZulu-Natal, it’s really widespread,” says a KwaZulu-Natal avocado farmer. “It’s early days but there’s a sort of normality setting in but our biggest problem is transport, we can’t get to the major markets in the metropolitan areas. We have quite a bit of stock that we can’t move, packed and palletized and ready to go but we’re waiting for the N3 to open. We’ve probably got two days to wait for it to open before we’ll have to start looking for a contingency plan with that fruit going onto the local market and even then, the problem is getting it to the local market.”
Pietermaritzburg: biggest economic knock imaginable
”We’re still trying to assess the damage but Pietermaritzburg has had the biggest economic knock imaginable. I don’t think it’ll be able to recover for a very long time. Shopping malls closest to low-income households have been destroyed. In the city there are still a few left but they’re far removed. We’re likely to see the availability of food immensely impacted,” says Mervyn Abrahams of the Pietermaritzburg Economic Justice and Dignity Group which tracks food prices and just recently released a food price index that showed that food prices were much higher than last year.