Over 1 000 people loot Boxer
LOOTING:
‘‘ Even though the monetary value of the items could not be established, it was reliably gathered that the food was transported in six dump trucks famously known as tipper trucks. The food had been condemned by health inspectors.’’
MBABANE – While South Africans were l ooting fresh food and clothing from malls, over 1 000 emaSwati looted condemned food from a dumpsite.
The people ambushed security personnel and broke at the Nhlangano dumpsite, where they spent three consecutive days helping themselves on condemned food stuffs.
The looting that started outside the Boxer Store on Wednesday and it was still going on at the Town Council dumpsite by last night.
Even though the monetary value of the items could not be established, it was reliably gathered that the food was transported in six dump trucks famously known as tipper trucks.
The food had been condemned by health inspectors from the Nhlangano Town Council and it was recommended that it should be disposed of accordingly.
When the day for disposal came on Wednesday, the shop staff started removing the items from the shop and placed them outside in preparation for loading into tipper trucks.
Upon realising that the food was being taken out for disposal, hundreds of people gathered around and started taking the items.
This happened in the presence of the police, Correctional Services personnel, health inspectors and Boxer employees.
Narrating the incident, Nhlangano Town Clerk Jabulani
Seyama said they had to suspend the transportation of the items on Wednesday because people had taken away almost everything even before it was loaded into trucks.
He narrated that Boxer had approached the town council and reported that their structural engineers had certified them fit and given them the green light to resume operations.
He said the shop then extended an invitation to council inspectors to conduct an assessment and make recommendations.
“Our inspectors discovered that all the items inside the shop were no longer fit for human consumption as they were exposed to a lot of smoke and fumes when the shop caught fire about three weeks ago,” he explained.
He said the parties set a date for disposal of the items to Wednesday as Boxer was expected to provide transport.
“Due to the chaos, we decided to keep the items inside the shop and wait for the trucks to arrive before they could be taken out for loading.”
He said on the following day, the process began and the trucks were escorted by the police to the dumpsite, only to find that over 500 people were already waiting for the trucks at the destination.
When the trucks arrived they offloaded and a translation lookaside buffer ( TLB) started filling up the trenches that had been dug prior in preparation for the store clearing.
Seyama said despite the presence of the police, the people threatened the TLB driver to the point that he ended up abandoning his duty.
“They took the items that were still on the surface and further took their time digging out the items that had already been buried in the cells.”
He said he was also aware that this went on for the whole day and