Storage units were looted and set alight in Waterfall, near Durban.
Video / Supplied
A school photo found among flames and wreckage was one of the few things left intact at a storage unit torched in this week's South African unrest.
A New Zealand woman's parents were caught up in deadly riots and looting which erupted in the wake of former president Jacob Zuma's imprisonment.
Sharon Viljoen's father, in his 60s, was in Underberg, KwaZulu-Natal, when unrest broke out and her mother and stepfather were in the coastal resort town of Karridene.
A woman walks past a fire truck as it extinguishes flames in a looted store in Alexandra township. Photo/ Yeshiel Panchia, AP
Security guards barricaded guests at Karridene due to safety concerns, Viljoen said.
Dozens of people have been killed and more than 2000 arrested in the unrest.
South Africa is experiencing a massive new wave of Covid-19 infections and struggles with entrenched poverty, inequality, corruption, and sluggish economic growth.
A protester in a wheelchair passes a burning tyre in Johannesburg after the imprisonment of former South African President Jacob Zuma. Photo / Yeshiel Panchia, AP
Viljoen said a multiracial group including members of community policing forums were co-operating to prevent more looting and violence.
"It's not a colour thing. It's good against bad."
Her parents' storage unit near Durban was looted and she was so worried this week she'd contacted a helicopter charter company to consider airlifting her father from Underberg.
IN YOUR FAVOURITE NEWSPAPER TOMORROW:
● Residents club together to clean up mess left behind by rioters while others continue to guard the last malls and businesses standing
Family members mourn beside the body of a fifteen-year old boy who allegedly shot dead when taxi association members tried to disperse looters in Johannesburg. Photo / AP
Viljoen said her brother in Johannesburg, the country's biggest city and financial capital, had also experienced looting.
"They went into the Spar to get cereal and whatever, and the next thing these looters came in and actually started shooting."
Nearby, the impoverished and densely-populated township of Alexandra also experienced intense looting and unrest.
By Thursday, New Zealand time, a clean-up operation was bringing some relief to Durban, home to the country's busiest port and to about 3.5 million people.
News website IOL said the local minibus taxi organisation, Santaco, worked with police and municipal cleaners after the looting.
President Cyril Ramaphosa authorised the deployment of 2500 soldiers to help police suppress the unrest.
