Having a Riot Good Time in Durban

Buying alcohol is illegal in South Africa, while buying marijuana is not. So obviously today I went out to get a drink. I went to the opposite side of my neighbourhood only to find that Queensmead Mall is locked up, the gates barred by two metal, and I mean this, bars that any able-bodied old person can get over. People were lurking around it, threatening the worst. Nothing was being burned and looted so far.  Not today. Not there. So we walked, because you do not want to go out in a riot alone, to find a safe place to sit down and toss one back. Something you suburban urchins might not realise, is that it is only the gentrified business that have stopped drinking since the Level 4 nonsense. The Black neighbourhoods and the hovels of the lower working class have been supplying each other and life has been continuing, albeit at R30 more for your usual.

Leaving the safety of a place that's governed by laws of its own, my friend and I walked towards Glenwood, via Umbilo, where we saw streets made of burnt tyre ash and glass. Also, a beautiful Black woman decided to park her nice car and do some cocaine a few meters from the madding crowd. Underneath arms and on top of heads, toolsets, hardware goods, a drill here and there. Running away towards the places of convalescence to hide their spoils. I even spotted a man with a generator on his head, which I found to be supreme choice, albeit cumbersome.

Not 1 person there was singing a Zuma song. Heineken bottles littered the streets, shopping windows of businesses were the music beneath our feet . Trolleys of liquor being hauled away by 10 year olds. I saw.

If you want to get a drink you can't go up to Davenport Road. Level 4 restrictions, constrictions and economical afflictions. Remember? So We decided to go find out which banks are open. Same direction. Only to find that Davenport square is trashed, the floors are wets, that ubiquitous glass. Isn't it funny how Woolworths was the only place with a police van outside? We hear they were vandalised and looted, too. 
The people with cars did the best looting, though I give credit to the men women and others who do amazing feats with their hands. A man came by with a very expensive bottle of cognac. We invited our selves to his place but he wasn't with it. Inside Davenport Square you could smell the
damage. But most of the looting and damaging was done by the time we stuck our head in. Places of Durban fame, like Dirk's Meat Market and Checkers were hit.  They have no windows
as we write this.

There were no fires. Not there.

I'm a little tired of reading articles about South Africa burning when people weren't out there in the streets.  I walked the Durban streets today. And yes, I know about Checkers Hyper By the Sea burning.  Couldn't be in two places at once. There's no political motivation for this. People are
just tired, hungry and cooped up. So much repression will get a proportionate recoil when the dyke breaks. And it broke a little today. With minimal police response. I saw 5 or so police vans parked at Umbilo Police Station, though, all pointing their noses down towards Umbilo Road, as
if just waiting for an order. but as we left wounded stores to go smoke legally at home, we saw another cop car driving away from the damage and looting populous. Wonder what important
work they had to do instead.

No pictures. This wasn't that. if you looked at the looting and vandalism today as I saw it, there was no leader. People came in vans, filling the back of a bakkie, to go do damage and at no point did I hear a struggle song. Until I sang one. i sang for them a made up version of "UZuma
uthi Ayihlome" and laughed all the way home.

Through 2 riots today, i got about 5g worth of weed and 5 cheap cigarettes, which are legal during Level 4(?)

I'd like to take this anger and public disorder seriously, and as I write this, I hear the very first gunshot I've heard all day. Wonder what that's about. This movement is leaderless and fruitless. So many places are closed. The shutdown of South Africa is for destabilisation and neglecting
the rule of law. Personally, i don't respect the rule of law much either. I believe the state is a failed relic and we should have been governing our selves, our land and our affairs a long time ago. But no Mandela, Ra,aphosa or Zuma has made South africa liveable. If they could all go to prison, I would be fine. This city burned for no reason. They didn't attack the harbours or the Reserve Bank. City hall still stands. The anchors of post-colonial influence are still firmly planted here. The miners don't seem to have acted up. How's LonMin doing? The targetting capabilities of the mob ewre what could be expected from a leaderless mob. Liquor is closed. Be sure they hit liquor. Food is always a go-to.  That got took, too.  But the country? Freedom?
Those weren't the point. not even #FreeJacobZuma.

In closing, I can tell yuo about the scariest thing that I saw today. It was the caucus of white men who looked quite racist from where i was standing. They occupied a corner of Penzance Road, the camera on the corner surely picked them up. They seemed to be huddling over the best
response to the possibly spreading violence. It was frightening, and I felt like a fly on the wall at a KKK pre-lynching meeting.  Many people are scared. Violence is scary. I'm gonna walk these streets and keep looking.

Remember, Death lurks where life is cheap.