Anger, Anarchy, The Despair Of Business And A People United In Hope
AT A TIME WHEN SOUTH AFRICA WAS already garnering global headlines for its heaving Covid-19 caseload, the country was hit by yet another deadly surge, a fierce wave of violent protests, looting and lawlessness that saw it spiraling out of control into history textbooks as the most devastating chapter since the country’s birth as a democracy in 1994.
The unrest and anarchy that left over 200 dead and many more beaten and broken, and properties razed to the ground, added to the woes of a crippling economy with many small businesses in tatters. Experts believe that the protests, sparked by the incarceration of former president Jacob Zuma, have dealt body blows to business and livelihoods that could take years to recover from.
Luyanda Jafta, the CEO and Co-Founder of The People’s Fund, a crowdfunding platform for small black-owned businesses, tells FORBES AFRICA that this was a ticking time bomb waiting to happen.
“We are staring down the barrel of the demise of the structure of South African society,” Jafta says. “South Africa is one of the most unequal societies in the world and our transformation objectives have failed.”
The unrest was stoked by multiple factors: Zuma loyalists who want the former president released
