A warehouse burns outside Durban as looters sift through the remnants of its content
Durban - Time goes by so fast – who can believe it's already been a year since last year's riots?
All the business people who were unable to reopen their establishments after the looting and destruction.
And all those still looking for work because their jobs were destroyed in the wanton violence.
That's who.
Some establishments, like the Makro in Springfield Park, were able to weather being shut down for the months it took to rebuild and refurbish because they are part of massive conglomerates.
Smaller guys, who, remember, were also battling the effects of Covid lockdowns? Not so much.
But the issue which sticks in the craw is the lack of justice meted out. There have been barely a handful of trials for those who participated in the carnage which cost the country some R75 billion, including many who proudly showed off their loot on social media.
And few of these has included any of the dozen or so individuals who we were told had been identified as the masterminds behind the havoc.
This terrifies me.
The lack of recourse for a plot calculated to bring the country to its knees means it can happen again.
The police were wholly ineffective during the looting, and it appears their investigations of those crimes were on par.
What guarantee do we have that they – even there are 10 000 more of them – will be any more efficient in a repeat?
The Independent on Saturday