Following days of unrest and riots, South Africa's largest oil refinery, which is responsible for producing more than one-third of the country's fossil fuel energy needs, has shut down citing uncertainty and the country's security apparatus being unable to keep the facility from being overrun.
Bloomberg News reports:
South Africa’s biggest oil refinery, a joint venture between Royal Dutch Shell Plc and BP Plc known as Sapref, shut down because of safety concerns and logistical issues.
The 180,000 barrel-a-day facility was closed “due to the ongoing civil unrest and disruption of delivery and supply routes in and out of the KwaZulu-Natal Province,” the company said in an emailed response to questions.
“This decision was taken after careful consideration of risks involved including the safety of our people," the email continued, noting that the plant could not even be guaranteed a supply of oil to process.
The shutdown comes on the heels of other reports noting that the country's largest food distribution warehouse, like so many businesses and malls, has also been looted and completely drained.
"VALUE TRUCKS National warehouse situated in KZN, the biggest food distribution centre in Africa and RSA is being looted to the bone by thousands of looters. This is the central nerve centre for bulk food distribution in KZN supplying Shoprite, Checkers, Woolworths, SPAR [a]nd Game," a local journalist reported via Twitter.
"This means not only retail but even the bulk supply food channels are being destroyed in KZN. There will be starvation and famine in KZN as early as next week. Shops that are open are running out of stock, due to panic buying. They cannot be restocked," the journalist continued, using the acronym for KwaZulu-Natal-Natal province.
"This is going to be the biggest food crisis in Africa since the Ethiopian Famine since 1984. There is no bread, meat, milk, petrol and other essential supplies in most parts of Durban. KZN is literally burning to the ground," he continued.
In other words, what's happening in South Africa is a total collapse which will lead to anarchy, mass death, and the collapse of a country that once managed to build its own nuclear weapons without the world ever knowing about it.
But if South Africa becomes weakened and a shell of itself, there will likely be tribal warfare from within the country and from outside, as old scores are settled. South Africa's Zulu population has never liked the African National Congress Party (ANC), and the tensions between the two factions have been building for years. Also, in more recent times, attacks and murders by blacks again minority whites have also accelerated.
"SAs current population level can only be sustained via modern agriculture & industrial logistics infrastructure. They’re destroying both. Famine is guaranteed, and on a greater scale than Zimbabwe," wrote another observer.
As of this writing, the violence is already ramping up; CBS News reports that at least 72 people have already been killed, and the country's police and military thus far seem incapable of ending the mayhem.
"Some of the most violent unrest has been in Alexandra township, a suburb of Johannesburg, where CBS News correspondent Debora Patta said hordes of looters have spent days ransacking retail stores, grabbing anything they can get their hands on. Outnumbered and overwhelmed, the police have struggled to contain the violence," the network reported.
And, in a prelude to what will happen in America when the left-wing anarchists come around again, CBS News added: "Over 1,000 arrests have been made, and the South African military has been deployed to hot spots. But thrown into the volatile mix now, are armed militias, taking the law into their own hands."
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