South Africans Loot and Add To Chaos in the Region

The South African President, Jacob Zuma, was recently jailed and that started a series of chaotic events that swept South Africa. Shops all over in Durban, South Africa have been looted. The story is one of chaos in South Africa, with individuals opportunistically taking advantage of the chaos to loot goods from prominent places of business in the country, Durban.

But we live in a globalized world, well, less globalized after the pandemic but still generally globalized. What happens in South Africa affects multinational firms elsewhere. For instance, Walmart owns several properties that include Massmart among other stores. What is troubling that a substantial portion of these stores were fully cleaned out. It was open access to everything and locals took the opportunity to take as much as possible from these stores.

These stores suffered significant disruptions and theft of goods. But why were individuals so bold? Why where they so brash?

The simple answer is that they did not have to deal with any consequences. The country is under duress and law enforcement seems to be taking a nap. The truth is that they are not taking a nap. Rather, they are not fully organized. They do not have the resources to contain the situation and find that they find themselves in a dire situation. At the same time, they find that with meager resources and assistance, they do not have the ability to enforce the law in the area.

They do not want to find themselves in a position where they may be certainly putting their lives in danger.

South African Lives Lost

Over 40 people have died and several have been injured. Stores are looted and set on fire and law and order cannot execute in containing the situation. What is even more interesting is that as the Durban police bring in more people, they do not have the space to hold more people. Over 680 people have been arrested in connection with the looting and the shooting.

South Africa Has Many Problems

Indeed, buildings are being destroyed and a great deal of economic damage is taking place all over the area, certainly not adding value to the job situation in South Africa. Remember that South Africa has had a significant problem with unemployment. At the present moment, unemployment in South Africa is at least hovering around 32.5 %.

More pressing problems such as the present only adds to instability in the region.

The Region Faces Instability

Issues such as regime changes in Mali and power outages in Iraq as well as currency issues create problems related to basic necessities. Indeed, when basic necessities are out of the picture, you get more chaos. This type of instability helps contribute to other issues that relate to ISIL, violence, and other problems in the area.