The past week has been one among the foremost difficult of my life. My home descended into chaos. Durban, a vacation city with a melting pot of cultures and a various range of individuals who live and work here, came to a standstill as rioters took to the streets to spread chaos after the arrest of former president Jacob Zuma.
The unrest began in KwaZulu-Natal region on Thursday 8 July, bringing everything to a grinding halt. We left work early to be with our families. Protests are usually contained within the central Durban district, but on Saturday evening pictures began circulating of looting and riots. As a precaution, we stayed home. By Sunday the town was on high alert, and trucks were being looted and torched on motorways into Durban. We had been anticipating further Covid lockdown restrictions because the number of cases in South Africa rises, but instead we were being isolated by violence. On Monday morning, I woke to the sound of gunshots, alarms going off and screams. it had been surreal; I sat up and thought, where am I?
By Tuesday the violence had intensified and are available closer. It wasn’t almost looting supermarkets; they were looting everything, including homes.
Communities began creating Neighbourhood Watch groups. Workers were told to remain reception for his or her safety because the unrest spread to residential areas. Roadblocks were found out , as people used any materials they might find to barricade the looters out, and formed groups to patrol during the cold winter nights.
Families began to run out of supplies, some venturing to the shops to shop for bread, milk and baby items like nappies. But large shopping malls were being attacked, looted and destroyed. My friend lost two of her businesses in hours and, as one mother of three, her income has come to an abrupt halt. My colleague Portia ran out of milk for her baby – the fear of mothers was heartbreaking.
As an employee at the world’s largest Muslim NGO, my mind kept reverting to our brothers and sisters in Syria, Yemen and Gaza. They too awakened at some point to lives altered for ever, and their suffering has not ceased. Will this happen to South Africa? This experience has heightened my empathy for people living in and fleeing from conflict zones. The fear is real.
I checked out my very own child and my parents, and couldn’t help but consider exit strategies. Where would they are going and the way would i buy them there? the times of destruction felt as if they wouldn’t end, everything we loved about this city in ruins, our homes under siege.
By Wednesday we were running out of fuel. People had money to shop for food but shop shelves were empty.
Our community came together, more strongly than at any time I can remember. Community leaders began taking milk and bread to residential areas, giving it out freed from charge to each person who approached them. We began beginning in numbers.
Men patrolling the streets with hockey sticks and cricket bats became the norm. If they met a looter, they might allow them to pass, but ensure they left the world . Communities worked to make sure their areas were safe from harm and violence. I’m someone who had never heard a gun going off but now I could identify the various sorts of shots and therefore the guns they were fired from. When the shots stopped we were stunned. is that this really happening? Is it over?
The festival of Eid al-Adha has been very different on behalf of me this year. The violence has significantly subsided thanks to the concerted effort of community patrollers, the military and police, but the mood is sombre and our thoughts remain with those suffering from the looting and violence. A sadness lingers; our communities have lost significant leaders to coronavirus this year and therefore the unrest has compromised many businesses even as we start to rebuild.
The ray of hope during this unrest has been the resilience of the South African people. We got together and said “enough is enough”; we came bent reclaim our streets and rebuild. That’s South Africans during a nutshell – nation that survived Apartheid and broke down the chains of racism and inequality – and that we emerge from this unrest stronger.
I am proud to figure for Islamic Relief; we continued performing from home leading up to our Eid food campaign and our leaders kept checking abreast of our wellbeing.
Among us there was an urge to reply to the involves help. We had numerous involves assistance from affected communities and that we had an equally sizable amount of requests from people that wanted to assist . Our teams began sending aid from other regions. Our fear became bravery.
As soon as aid came in, we began responding to the food crisis. The team also had to push ahead with our Eid Qurbani distribution programme in KwaZulu-Natal, providing fresh meat to 900 families, including nearly 400 orphans. Meat is vital for Eid al-Adha, because it commemorates the instant the prophet Ibrahim pleased Allah together with his intention of sacrificing his son, Ismail, and Allah stayed his hand, replacing the boy with a sheep.
Covid has already deepened the lines of poverty and now the unrest has too. people that were already poor became even poorer. those that live from pay cheque to pay cheque found their work had finished overnight and there was no support. numerous people were already in anguish due to dire poverty, then this. such a lot destruction to the present beautiful country that i really like .
This Eid was a time for reflection. But the day after, staff and volunteers were call at force, packing hampers for our community.
The days are long and hard but in its people there’s hope for a stronger South Africa , for us and our youngsters .