- A Gauteng mom and daughter lost their livelihood after looters destroyed their business.
- Looters trashed and burnt down their vegetable market stand in Daveyton.
- President Cyril Ramaphosa announced that the SANDF would be deployed to Gauteng and KZN.
A Gauteng mom and daughter are "devastated" after looters trashed and burnt down their vegetable stand at the market in Daveyton on Sunday evening, leaving the family without an income.
Ellen Mhlanga, 21, said when she and her mom went to their usual stand at 06:00 on Monday, they were confronted by the terrible scenario.
"We've had this stand for 25 years. My mom and I come here every day, Monday to Sunday, to make a living and put food on the table for my siblings. We couldn't believe what we saw," she said.
Mhlanga said her mom, Martha, had bought fresh vegetable stock on Saturday to sell over the weekend - but all the stock had been stolen by looters.
She added that, on Sunday morning, everything was "fine". The market was busy as people were shopping for ingredients for Sunday lunch.
#ZumaUnrest A security officer firing at a group of looters stealing from Mayfield Square Mall in Daveyton. Looters are pelting guards with stones (@ntwaagae) pic.twitter.com/4fxVy1tvow
— Team News24 (@TeamNews24) July 13, 2021
"After around 18:00, we packed everything up, as usual, covered it up with a sail, and put bricks on top of it, and left for home," said Mhlanga.
According to Mhlanga, people started phoning her mom late Sunday evening to tell her that looters were trashing the marketplace. Unfortunately, though, her mom's phone was off.
It was only on Monday morning when they were getting ready for work that they discovered several missed calls on the phone.
She said:
Mhlanga said her mom was "shattered" because she did not know how they were going to find money to pay for transport, buy electricity, and put food on the table for the rest of the week.
The University of South Africa (Unisa) student said she helped her mom at the market when she could.
"This looting is costing us our daily money. Now, we have to spend extra money on buying a new sail and new vegetable stock, which is not cheap," she said.
Mhlanga said they usually make up to R500 a day selling vegetables at the stand.
"On Monday, we only managed to make R30, it is heartbreaking," she said.
She added that her siblings would be going to school soon and her mom had to pay for school fees and transport. Now, they had no idea what they were going to do.
"We need to buy new stock, but we don't have the money. Luckily, one of our neighbours offered to give us a new sail once we are up and running again."
The student said she didn't understand why the looters had to burn down other people's livelihoods to prove a point.
She said she understood why they were angry, but it didn't mean they had to destroy property that didn't belong to them.
The unrest, which started last Thursday in KwaZulu-Natal after former president Jacob Zuma was arrested for being in contempt of a Constitutional Court order, has since spread to Gauteng.
President Cyril Ramaphosa has deployed the SA National Defence Force (SANDF) to assist the police to quell the mass lootings in both provinces.