The city also saw fresh incidents of looting on Wednesday, including in Phoenix, after which Police Minister Bheki Cele made his way there to assess the scale of the destruction. Police have confirmed 15 people have been murdered in Phoenix in less than a week. Police seized 10,000 rounds of ammunition in Mobeni, Durban. Cele said the motivation for this was no longer just hunger. “This thing of hungry people looting for food… this is food. So if you’re hungry, you cannot eat this, we’re dealing with something much bigger here.”

Meanwhile, soldiers have now been deployed to the N3 toll route where the highway remains closed for now between Cedara in KwaZulu-Natal and Harrismith in the Free State. This route - one of the busiest highways for the transportation of fuel and food to the inland - has been forced shut due to the violence and mass looting since last week. Plans are now underway to prepare for the N3 toll route to be re-opened and to ensure it is safe to do so. However, clean-up and repairs first need to happen urgently before motorists and trucks will be able to use it. N3 Toll Concession’s Thania Dhoogra said: “Clean up and recovery will commence and as soon as thereafter, the road will be reopened to traffic. We appeal to motorists, for their own safety and security, to please avoid the area until this section of the road has been reopened.”

The rolling lawlessness is the deadliest and costly wave of violence since the dawn of democracy with KwaZulu-Natal bearing the brunt. During a media briefing on Wednesday night, Premier Sihle Zikalala said the violence in that province couldn’t be carried out in the name of Former President Jacob Zuma, adding the ongoing looting will exacerbate unemployment levels. Zikalala said the damage caused by looters over the past week is now estimated at R3 billion, up from the R100 million figure given at the weekend. The premier said the number of deaths has also increased from 26, but final figures will be given once they have been fully consolidated. Zikalala said over 1000 people have been arrested for participating in looting sprees in the province, and this includes state officials like the police. “We have also noted that employees or former employees in some businesses were behind these incidents, as they have knowledge of business premises,” he said.

The KZN premier said the visibility of crime-fighting units will be ramped up in areas identified as hotspots. “The law enforcement agencies including police SANDF, RTI, municipal police will be undertaking coordinated operations targeted at criminal syndicates,” he said. Zikalala said his government would present a plan that will ensure an uninterrupted supply of fuel, medicine and food.