On the fifth day of the SA shutdown unrest, rioters in KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) have turned their attention to the Game warehouse on Queen Nandi Drive, in Newlands East, where several reports of looting were made.
Watch: The situation at KZN Game warehouse
Video footage showing droves of looters walking about the parking area of the electronic store’s distribution warehouse hauling carts filled to the brim with stolen goods have surfaced on social media.
Crazy scenes coming out of the Nandi Drive area. Looters are having a field day at the Game warehouse. Cars are lining up all around the area to load big appliances into their vehicles from the warehouse. #looters #durban @etvNewsSA pic.twitter.com/kfpqlERbkO
— Nabeelah Shaikh (@Nabeelah_Shaikh) July 13, 2021
Game Warehouse 🙁 exactly where is the Army?!!!! pic.twitter.com/wciPQZEzNT
— reez mo (@reezmozn) July 13, 2021
On Tuesday morning, after being chased away from a number of hotspot areas in the province, looters rushed to the Game warehouse on Queen Nandi Drive to get their hands on whatever they could.
From what we understand, no sightings of law enforcement agencies or the SANDF have been made in the area. Although, a number of spottings were made of armed soldiers patrolling parts of KZN and Gauteng.
Where are the SANDF soldiers and police?
At the time this article was published, an undisclosed number of armed soldiers were deployed to certain hotspot areas identified by SA’s crime intelligence cluster.
However, based on a number of incidents of looting reported on Tuesday morning, it appears that law enforcement’s response has been overshadowed by the sheer number of looters who are spread out across the two provinces.
In his address to the nation, President Cyril Ramaphosa outrightly condemned the wide scale looting that’s gripped the country in these past five days.
He warned that those arrested will be prosecuted and handed with harsh sentences.
“Let me be clear: we will take action to protect every person in this country against the threat of violence, intimidation, theft and looting. We will not hesitate to arrest and prosecute those who perpetrate these actions and will ensure that they face the full might of our law.
“We will restore calm and order so that we can get on with the task of rebuilding this country and creating a better life for its people,” he exclaimed.
Since Tuesday, police confirmed that 757 suspects have been arrested for public violence and other crimes linked to the shutdown riots.
Swisher Post News made a number of attempts at reaching the KZN Game warehouse offices for comment but at the time this article was published, no response was received.