Against the backdrop of destroyed packaging and debris scattered all over the streets surrounding a Value Logistics warehouse in one of eThekwini’s flashpoints, the premier of the “Province of Plunder” has said that he believes KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) is winning the fight against looting.
Speaking to a journalist this morning, Sihle Zikalala, an ardent loyalist of Jacob Zuma, said the presence of more police and boots on the ground since President Cyril Ramaphosa called in military support was making a difference.
“You cannot afford to have a situation like this and not be on the ground,” he said.
Looking at the devastation around him, he said looters had had the upper hand in KZN due to “a lack of coordination between police and metro police”.
The tide though has turned against the tyranny of lawlessness and destruction sowed throughout the province ever since his favourite political delinquent was packed off to prison late last Thursday evening.
“We would want to assure stability right from today,” Zikalala said.
“We have a plan that involves each district.”
Asked how many people had been arrested since law and order had been cranked up a notch, from wholly absent to police arriving without enough ammunition in certain places, Zikalala didn’t want to divulge hard facts.
“It’s getting to the thousands,” is all he said.
He added that “right from now” people could expect more stability in the province that is his primary responsibility and that under his pathetic rule will probably never again be the same.
Asked what the hardest hit areas are so far, Zikalala said it was still the industrial zones and that the unrest was beginning to spread into neighbourhoods.
“People are trying to invade residential areas and we are not going to allow that.”
Lastly Zikalala was asked about Zuma, the convicted criminal for whom he “still has a special place in this heart”.
“This criminality has nothing to do with Zuma,” he said.
Because Zuma is in a prison in Estcourt, “he cannot instruct people to loot.
“This is not done in his name.”
WATCH: A video shows the extreme devastation that KZN premier Sihle Zikalala believes is under control.
