WHAT IS HAPPENING IN SOUTH AFRICA - FROM A SOUTH AFRICAN
Everything that is going on in South Africa started out when our former president Jacob Zuma was arrested following fraud/theft/corruption charges and he failed to hand himself over to the court. A few Zulu people in Kwa Zulu Natal rallied together and protested his arrest, which developed into looting and violent riots.
At first poorer people used these riots and protests to loot shops and steal essentials and food items, following frustration with our current president Cyril Ramaphosa after R500 Billion in Covid aid funds vanished and barely any of it reached the people who actually need it.
This escalated into violent looting and burning of shops by opportunistic criminals who started stealing anything they could, from TVs and electronics, to blood from a blood bank and even a live shark from a zoo.
Foreign news channels have tried painting this as poor people rising against capitalism, they have made it look like we all love Zuma and want him released (we don't) and some have even tried to make it look like POC people are rising up against white supremacy. This is not true.
It is currently just violence for the sake of violence, fuelled by resentment towards the government and management of the country. The videos may even make it look like only black people are looting, this is also not true. We have seen people of all races taking part in the violence.
The only reason it seems to be mostly black people is due to the fact that the population of South Africa is made up of roughly 80% black people, 9% white, 9% coloured (south african wording for people with heritage made up of multiple races), and about 2% Indian. The races of the looters reflects the racial demographics of the country.
The violence and looting has spread and escalated to a point where even Google maps is providing live tracking of the violence and multiple places have been classified as Red no go zones for EMS and other emergency services due to the danger.
There is a constant thin layer of smoke over the horizon, we can see fires in the distance at night and police sirens and gun shots can be heard almost constantly. People are lining up for hours to buy what little supplies are left and the government has started rationing food in certain areas. People cannot buy their medication, baby formula or essential supplies and bread is almost entirely out of stock.
Our taxi association (who have been involved in violent gang wars amongst themselves for years - so this was a big surprise) have come together and are forming barricades to protect communities but it comes too late for many towns and cities.
We woke up this morning to news of a massacre in Pheonix in KZN (an area with a predominantly Indian population) where it seems the Indian people have taken to the streets armed and are shooting black people (looters or not) without mercy. Many people in KZN have said that the Indian people there have always wanted to be rid of the black people and are using the looting and riots as an excuse. We are seeing videos of bodies piled up in the streets and dozens of people are missing.
The military and police along with taxi drivers are doing what they can but the red no go zones are entirely on their own and help and aid is not arriving fast enough.
This is now just plain violence and crime. People are scared, food and supplies are gone or destroyed, distribution centres have been burnt down and farms are being destroyed. At this point it will already take months to get food distribution back to normal. We have even heard that they are targeting cellphone towers to deliberately cut off peoples communication with the outside world and many people believe this may be a coup disguised as riots.
We spent the day yesterday figuring out which crops we can grow in our garden, taking stock of our supplies and deciding how to ration our food just in case.
I'm not asking for donations, even if people could donate there are so many people who need it I wouldn't even know where to send it and donations given to government agencies here will likely just go missing and never actually help anyone.
I am asking you to please share this post, there is alot of politically motivated misinformation being shared and alot of foreign broadcasters are failing to understand the full extent of what is happening here.
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