SOUTH AFRICA: Looting and fights against the police in Cape Town

On Tuesday, March 14, there were fights against the police and several shops were looted in the shantytown of Mitchells Plain and Manenberg, in Cape Town.

In Manenberg a large crowd broke into two wholesalers and confiscated grocery items. There are freports about further looting, but no more detailed information.

In Mitchells Plain hundreds of residents gathered to the street demanding the promised food parcels and protested against the now 19 days lasting complete lock down. The deployed police forces used rubber bullets and armored vehicles to disperse the crowd. The people hurled rocks on to the security forces and blocked several roads in the area due burning barricades.

Due to the curfew, which was imposed on 27 March, people in the poor suburbs can neither work nor obtain food. The government has promised to food parcels, but this has never been spent.