SOWETO, South Africa — Gingerly stepping over the slick, muddied floor of a supermarket in Soweto that had just been emptied and gutted by looters, the manager fretted over where neighbors would now get their food and how he would support his wife and four children. “Our livelihoods are gone,” said Tau Chikonye, the 44-year-old manager, who had worked at the market known as the Supa Store for 13 years. Nearby, standing in front of his five-bedroom home, a laid-off hotel worker who had joined in the looting — carting away flour, chicken, Pepsi and dog food to his family — contemplated the damage that had been wrought: His community no longer had a store nearby for shopping. “I feel horrible,” said the unemployed hospitality worker, Sifiso, who asked that his last name be withheld for fear of being arrested.

Source: New York Times July 15, 2021 20:20 UTC