WeeklySA_AdminWELCOME:Shoppers express relief after the incovenience
By Vusi Xaba
Shoprite at Soweto’s Jabulani Mall opened its doors yesterday to a trickle of shoppers following its temporary closure in the wake of the spate of violent looting and destruction that gripped KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng three weeks ago. The economy took a hard knock from the violent protests organised in demand of former president Jacob Zuma’s release from prison.
This resulted in trucks being set alight along the N2 and N3 highways between KZN and Gauteng. Shops, warehouses, bottle stores and factories were looted, some torched. The violence claimed more than 330 lives. Excited customers from the townships surrounding areas welcomed the move that was much seamless than they had expected.
Being the first day of shopping at the mall since July 12, when the mall was invaded by vandals and looters, there were expectations of long queues but it was quieter day at the tills. Shoppers said they had been forced to travel far to buy their groceries.
“I had to go to Kliptown just to buy groceries. It cost more because I had to pay for the taxi,” said Mapula Mofokeng from Moletsane. Thembi Dladla of Jabulani, said: “We struggled to get something as basic as bread. When we got it, the price had escalated to double the normal price. The bread that one would buy for R15 was now selling for R30 from a few spaza shops that operated. They (spaza shops) also took time to open after they had closed operations following the looting”.
Sihle Zondi said he had expected long queues but was surprised that his shopping was easy and took a little time to shop.
“There was only one person in the queue when I went to pay in the till. I had expected long queues since people had been struggling to get groceries as the mall has been closed. I hope the people who were involved in the looting have realised the difficulty they have put us in,” Zondi said.
When Weekly SA Mirror visited Jabulani Mall, there was a heavy private security guard presence. Repairs were being done to other shops and all cordoned off. Out of the three entrances to the mall, only one was opened. Such giant retailers as Clicks Pharmacy, Game and Woolworths looked like they were far from ready, as they had nothing on the shop floor. There were only three taxis in the taxi rank with a few passengers.
According to the retail giant’s newsletter dated July 18, Shoprite Group said out of 1 189 supermarkets trading as Shoprite, Usave, Checkers and Checkers Hyper, 119 were affected by the recent unrest, 69 were Shoprite and 44 were Usave and 54 out of their 537 LiquorShop outlets were impacted by looting and fire.
“ The Group’s Freshmark (fresh produce) distribution centre (DC) in Durban was looted however its operational capacity has been fully restored since Sunday, 18th July; – Our KwaZulu-Natal dry goods DC resumed deliveries to our stores in the province from Thursday last week; – The Gauteng based DC has operated seamlessly throughout to the extent that it delivered goods to our KwaZulu-Natal operations from as early as Thursday last week in support of our stores re-opening in a phased approach throughout the province” the newsletter reads.
Jabulani Mall management had not responded to our inquiries by the time of going to print.
