XPost: alt.niggers, talk.politics.guns, soc.culture.south-africa   
   XPost: sac.politics   
   From: nigger-lovers@disney.com   
      
   Protests which began after former South African President Jacob   
   Zuma handed himself into police to serve a 15-month sentence   
   have descended into days of violence and looting. The BBC has   
   spoken to a few of the people caught in the middle.   
      
   "We are on fire," Ian - not his real name - tells the BBC from   
   riot-hit Durban in South Africa's KwaZulu-Natal province.   
      
   In the last three days, he reckons he has managed an hour or two   
   of sleep at a time. He and his team - who work for a private   
   security company - are surviving on energy drinks as they wait   
   and watch.   
      
   They have given up trying to stop the looting which has   
   destroyed so many buildings since protests calling for South   
   Africa's former President Jacob Zuma to be freed from jail began   
   last week. Ian has heard reports of three security guards being   
   killed since the weekend.   
      
   Now, they are just protecting the neighbourhoods where they live.   
      
   "We've gone to a place where we are going to watch them   
   stealing, we are not interfering with them - don't harm us."   
      
   In another part of Durban, a woman is preparing to make the 20-   
   minute drive to her family from her home in a badly hit   
   residential area. She doesn't know if she will make it, or be   
   turned back by one of the blockades which have popped up on the   
   city's roads.   
      
   But she knows she cannot bear another night of lying in bed   
   listening to the gunshots.   
      
   "I am so scared," the woman - who asked not to be named - told   
   the BBC.   
      
   "It literally feels like being in a war zone with gunshots,   
   fires and smoke going up everywhere for the last two days."   
      
   When the smoke clears, the best view of what is happening in   
   Durban is from the air.   
      
   Jayshree Parasuramen, traffic reporter on East Coast Radio's   
   helicopter, could see it all: factories burning, trucks moved to   
   block roads and "thousands" of people looting shops and   
   warehouses, with cars waiting to collect their ill-gotten goods.   
      
   "They formed a shield around the areas they were looting," she   
   explains. "So, the entrances and exits were blocked, and a lot   
   of people crowding around that area to not allow anyone or any   
   motorists to pass."   
      
   The people, she said, were also "heavily armed".   
      
   "The amount of gunshots that we could hear was unbelievable -   
   and then petrol bombs. We couldn't even hover around those areas   
   because of them opening fire, and then eventually we just had to   
   land, because of the live ammunition that they were using."   
      
   Officials - all the way up to President Cyril Ramaphosa - have   
   all suggested the protests were hijacked by criminal elements.   
      
   Others believe the hardships exacerbated by the coronavirus   
   pandemic created a tinderbox which just needed a spark to set it   
   alight. The spark, in this case, was jailing Mr Ramaphosa's   
   predecessor for contempt of court.   
      
   "We knew, when we locked down again, this was bound to happen,   
   because the longer you leave people hungry, these events would   
   take place," Eldrin Naidoo told the BBC from Johannesburg.   
      
   From freedom fighter to president to jail   
   Zuma, the Guptas, and the sale of South Africa   
   But, as Tumelo Mosetlhi points out, in the long run it will only   
   harm those who are already struggling.   
      
   "To see people's shops and businesses being gutted - yes, people   
   are hungry today, but tomorrow there will be more unemployment,   
   more pain, more suffering in a nation that is trying to recover   
   and rebuild itself."   
      
   For the moment, those living in the areas at the heart of the   
   violence cannot think about the future.   
      
   "You don't know if you are going to make it to tomorrow - that's   
   the feeling right now," Jayshree Parasuramen says.   
      
   Ian and his team, meanwhile, have given up listening to the   
   radio for information, and are now just watching for the gangs   
   to approach.   
      
   "Saps [South African Police Service] are just inundated with   
   calls that they are not taking calls anymore," he says.   
      
   "So we are calling on the local men in the area to try to come   
   out and defend to keep their families safe."   
      
   But there isn't much they can do, if things go wrong. Rumours   
   that people have been filling up canisters with petrol nearby   
   have them all on edge.   
      
   "We carry paintballs [in our guns]," Ian explains. "So you know,   
   we would be defending ourselves against petrol bombs with   
   paintballs."   
      
   On Monday, the government announced it would deploy the army to   
   help the overwhelmed police service, but those the BBC spoke to   
   for this article had seen little evidence of troops in their   
   areas.   
      
   But officials have yet to declare a state of emergency, and   
   everyone feels let down.   
      
   "The army only got here when it was already in smoke," says Ian.   
      
   "It's meant to go to hotspots but it is going to places that   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)