- Alexandra residents have embarked on a clean-up of the township.
- This comes after days of looting and violence in the area.
- One of the volunteers fears that they will never have a mall like Pan Africa Shopping Centre again.
There was a glimmer of hope on the streets of Alexandra township on Thursday morning as residents embarked on a clean-up of the township, following days of destruction and looting.
"The five of us decided to come here and help clean up our township," Nomvula Mathole told News24.
The 25-year-old is among several volunteers who rallied together to clean the shopping district after it was completely ransacked when unrest spilled over into the area this week.
Parts of KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng have been rocked by unrest, resulting in acts of lawlessness, like looting.
News24 earlier reported that violence had broken out on Friday, incited by calls to free former president Jacob Zuma from prison, but has since descended into mass violence and looting.
The Pan Africa Shopping Centre, which was opened by Zuma in 2009, was one of the notable buildings in the township that was destroyed during the ongoing unrest.
The mall was left unrecognisable, with almost nothing left to salvage following the violent actions earlier in the week.
#UnrestSA : Police Minister, Bheki Cele is in Alexandra. He takes a look at the damage at a Pick n Pay in Pan Africa Mall @TeamNews24 . pic.twitter.com/wGSu3GqbV7
— Canny Maphanga (@CannyMaphanga) July 13, 2021
Looking back at the mall behind her, surrounded with rubble, on Thursday, Mathole was left speechless at the task which lay ahead of them.
"I am afraid that our lives are never going to be the same and many people are going to be jobless."
Mathole said:
Mathole added that, even if they did clean up the entire building, she did not believe that the community would have a mall of this nature in the future.
"I do not think we will have another mall like this one ever. It is destroyed, there is nothing you can do," she said.
Justice and Correctional Services Minister Ronald Lamola was among some of the government ministers and MECs who visited Alexandra on Wednesday.
Lamola described the unrest as "clear economic sabotage".
"These are very serious crimes, and it has taken on a very serious light. We are expecting that [they] are going to be taken through the court processes expeditiously.
"We will call upon serious sentences to be meted out, because this is clear economic sabotage to the people of this country. It is also serious social unrest and instability, it's is a serious crime," he said earlier.