Rioters wreak havoc, COVID-19 vaccinations stopped as South Africans face food shortage

*South African government officials, business leaders and other stakeholders say besides wanton killings and attendant massive destruction of property, ‘food is going to be a problem because shops haven’t been opened for three days and many with bulk storage have been looted’

Isola Moses | ConsumerConnect

As retailers have lost an estimated five billion Rand ($340 million) to superstore looters amid the continued violent protests rocking the country, South Africans are expected to face major food shortages as rioters upend supply chains by looting supermarkets and torching goods trucks, especially in the two key provinces mostly affected by the crisis.

Farmers are reportedly struggling to harvest and transport fresh produce to the market due to the eerie security situation in the Southern African country.

Deadly protests spread across the country   Photo: 

ConsumerConnect learnt the deadly riot continued Tuesday, July 13, 2021, in several Gauteng townships, including Alexandra, Diepsloot, Vosloorus and Mamelodi, although calm prevailed in Johannesburg’s city centre, which bore the brunt of the violence the previous day.

The footage of empty or sparse grocery-store shelves has been a staple of local news reports since the weekend, while chains, such as Shoprite Holdings Limited and Pick n Pay Stores Limited closed countless outlets altogether in the country.

Agency report also said in parts of Durban, the coastal KwaZulu-Natal city at the centre of the upheaval, long queues formed outside the few open food shops and basics such as bread and milk were in short supply.

Gavin Hudson, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of sugar producer Tongaat Hulett Limited, which has suspended milling and refining operations outside the city due to the violent civil disturbances, said: “Food is going to be a problem because shops haven’t been opened for three days and many with bulk storage have been looted.

“We are going to face some food issues in KwaZulu-Natal very shortly.”

Genesis of the current devastating crisis

The current raging, deadly unrest in South Africa was said to have started with protests against the arrest of former President Jacob Zuma, but soon degenerated into deadly and destructive rampages in KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng, the economic hub of the country.

President Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa

Rioters pilfered food, electronic goods and medical supplies from at least 800 stores, and retailers have lost an estimated 5 billion Rand ($340 million) to date, according to the Consumer Goods Council of South Africa, an unprecedented amount.

Subsequently, the Beer Association of South Africa also called for a state of emergency after two SABMiller Africa and Asia Pty. Limited depots in KwaZulu-Natal were looted and set alight and Heineken N.V.’s warehouse was ransacked.

Nicole Mirkin, Spokesperson for the country’s Beer Association, in a statement said “there is a fear that the other three remaining SAB facilities in the province will also be targeted.”

Over 600 retail and liquor stores have been damaged and in some cases destroyed, according to reports received by the industry body.

Heineken, the world’s second largest brewer, is in talks to buy South African wine and spirits maker Distell Group Holdings Limited, according to Bloomberg reports May this year.

Food crisis looms, say authorities

On the level of destruction visited on businesses and retail stores in South Africa thus far, the Road Freight Association estimated that over 35 trucks had been destroyed, with a cost to logistics firms of at least 300 million Rand and counting.

That’s led to the closing of a key highway between Durban and Johannesburg, cutting off the flow of food and other essential goods from the country’s biggest port to its most populous city.

As regards how trade and other economic activities are being blocked in the country, Christo Van der Rheede, Executive Director of AgriSA, was quoted in an interview as saying the Citrus farmers, who are in mid-export season, are among those unable to harvest and transport their produce for now.

Sugarcane fields have been razed and livestock stolen, and commitments on exports that bring in crucial foreign exchange and support jobs may not be met, van der Rheede said.

He stated: “South Africans are very fortunate to receive fresh fruit, fresh meat, fresh vegetables on a daily basis.

“If these supply chains are disrupted, there won’t be fresh produce in stores and people will have to rely on frozen supplies. But what do we do if we run out of that as well?”

The food crisis is developing more than 18 months into a coronavirus pandemic that’s led to a spike in hunger around the world.

As many as 811 million people, the figure which is about a 10th of the global population, are said to be undernourished in 2020, the United Nations report said Monday, July 12.

Although, the crisis may have its roots in support for Jacob Zuma, the scale of the outbreak has also been linked to years of poor government services and a record unemployment rate of 32.6 percent.

Continued violence has disrupted COVID-19 vaccination programme

South Africa is one of the most unequal countries in the world, underlying a high crime rate, and President Cyril Ramaphosa Monday described the violence as “opportunistic acts of criminality, with groups of people instigating chaos merely as a cover for looting and theft.”

According to Van der Rheede, a small blessing is that the riots are localised in two specific provinces, but the problem will escalate if the violence spreads.

If that happens, the country’s entire food logistics network would be jeopardised.

He added: “The last thing that we want is for South Africans to experience hunger, food shortages and starvation.”

Violent protests halt COVID-19 vaccinations in key South African provinces

As violent demonstrations with attendant damage to property continue in the country, the South African Government has felt compelled to partially stop the ongoing vaccination programme in KwaZulu-Natal, parts of Gauteng.

It was gathered that the two provinces have accounted for 45 percent of all vaccinations in the country.

Nicholas Crisp, a consultant to the National Health Department who is helping oversee the programme, said of the state-administered inoculations in an interview Tuesday: “We are clearly not going to be putting our staff in harm’s way,” adding, that those queuing for vaccines could also be in danger.

Crsip noted that “it will just have to wait until things calm down.”

The disruption is the latest blow to a rollout that’s been criticised for its late start and remains at a nascent stage.

Hitherto, issues clogging the smooth take off of the vaccination programme had included a decision not to use the AstraZeneca Plc vaccine amid fears of its efficacy against the beta variant of the virus, while the delivery of Johnson & Johnson vaccines were delayed after a contamination incident at a US factory.

South Africa vaccinated 137,421 people in the 24 hours to 5 p.m. local time Tuesday compared with more than 191,000 late last week.

The health department had expected to inoculate more than 200,000 people a day this week, Crisp said.

Fewer than 2,000 doses were administered in KwaZulu-Natal.

Observers said the setback comes as the country is in the grip of a third wave of COVID-19 infections that have led to the imposition of a curfew, a ban on alcohol sales and restrictions on movement.

Of the daily infections recorded in the country, about half are in Gauteng.

The Health Department in a statement said the unrest has also disrupted access to essential health services, including the collection of chronic medication by tuberculosis, HIV and diabetes patients in some districts in both KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng.

Before the violence erupted at the weekend, report said the inoculation numbers had been climbing steadily toward a target of 300,000 a day set by President Cyril Ramaphosa.

President Ramaphosa in a televised address Monday said: “Our vaccination programme has been severely disrupted just as it is gaining momentum.

“This will have lasting effects on our ability to consolidate some of the progress we were already witnessing in our economic recovery.”

Meanwhile, vaccinations and testing by private companies were also reported to have been disrupted amid the violent rioting in the country.

For instance, Dis-Chem Pharmacies Limited, which provides both services, which closed all its drugstores in KwaZulu-Natal Monday, in an e-mailed response to questions, stated that some outlets in Gauteng have also been affected by the deadly unrest, reports Bloomberg.

Clicks Group Limited has had to close 106 vaccination sites and 279 pharmacy and health stores, it said in an e-mail.

Like many businesses, the cost of the looting and damage to stores “is still to be determined given the ongoing unrest,” the firm said.

Similarly, Discovery Limited, which owns South Africa’s largest medical-scheme administrator, shuttered all its vaccination sites bar one in Cape Town Tuesday.

The company in a statement said that it is prioritising the safety of its staff, and would reopen when possible.

Thus, at over 2.2 million, South Africa has the highest number of ‘confirmed’ COVID-19 infections on the African continent.

More than 65,000 people have officially died of the disease, though health researchers say the real figure may be three times as much, according to report.

Of almost 4.54 million doses of vaccines administered in the country so far, 24 percent have been in Gauteng and 21 percent in KwaZulu-Natal, which are the two mostly affected provinces in the violent protests currently rocking the Southern African country.

Additional reporting by Gbenga Kayode

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