Business owners, residents count the costs after a week of rampage

THE violence that swept through Tshwane’s townships this week left a trail of destruction in the form of death, assault, looting, fear and intimidation.

“We are scared. The safety of our own homes has been invaded. This has got out of hand,” said Maria Mahlangu of Extension 4 in Atteridgeville.

Authorities say it is too early to count the cost of the damage, but it is likely to run well into the millions.

At least 20 buses were burnt in Mamelodi East on Monday night, and the Stanza Bopape clinic next to the City to City bus depot was vandalised.

The destruction spread to Atteridgeville on Tuesday morning and a delivery truck was set alight. Within minutes, another was on fire 2km away near Kalafong Hospital. The main streets in and out of the township were reduced to smouldering channels littered with rocks, burning tyres and debris. Armed with rocks and sticks, a mob of youngsters, their faces covered, ran around pulling people heading for work out of taxis.

By the afternoon the violence had spread to the northern townships, where buses, trucks and private cars were torched in Hammanskraal, GaRankuwa, Mabopane, Soshanguve and Winterveldt.

Frightened foreign shop owners hastily packed up what they could in their shops, but it was too late for most of them to stop the looting. On Wednesday, a group of Pakistani shop owners took refuge at the Atteridgeville police station.

Some looters arrived in vehicles to load goods into.

Pictures posted on social media showed residents looting a Nike factory shop. In one picture, two men are seen carrying away a deep freezer.

Billy “Black” Makhubedu’s tailoring business in Mamelodi was extensively damaged after being set on fire by protesters early on Tuesday.

He found his studio still smouldering and everything inside — expensive industrial machines, garment stock and completed clothes — burnt beyond recognition.

He estimated the damage at R300 000. “I don’t even have R100 in my pocket right now. They’ve killed me.”

A woman said she saw looters load furniture and bicycles into bakkies during the mayhem on Tuesday night.

Others carried off the stolen property on their heads.

Mohammed Elias, 39, said he had to leave behind his three fellow Pakistanis, who had locked themselves inside their shop as protesters swarmed around. “I do not know if they are still alive. We have asked police to escort us to the shop to rescue them but we are still waiting here [at the police station] five hours later,” he said.

Atteridgeville residents told of violent people in balaclavas going from house to house, ordering people not to go to work or school and forcing them to join the protest.

The trouble started last Sunday afternoon at the Tshwane Events Centre, western Pretoria, where Thoko Didiza was to be unveiled as the ANC’s mayoral candidate.

A VW Polo without registration plates screeched to a stop and four men jumped out, opening fire on ANC members at the gate. Simon Modihe, 38, was struck in the leg and upper body and died at Steve Biko Academic Hospital on Monday.

Several others sustained serious injuries from being stabbed and assaulted with golf clubs.

By Thursday afternoon the death toll had risen to five, with four deaths related to looting.