Reviews of traditional/social media reveals the names of 34 #shoppingmalls that were looted while SAPOA (South African Property Owners Association) indicates 200 & South African Council of Shopping Centres indicates 112. These are vastly different figures. Map 1 shows where the 34 are located but where are the rest? It is in the national interest that information on the true extent of shopping malls looted is provided to citizens.
PoliticsWeb article by Heinrich Matthee says that physical proximity to “susceptible” communities with similar socio-economic characteristics & values, are key to understanding public violence & #riots.(https://www.politicsweb.co.za/opinion/zuma-riots-seven-key-takeaways) Map 2 shows looted shopping malls in Durban relative to #townships & informal areas. Seven out of the 10 shopping malls looted are in close proximity to townships & informal settlements. The 3 other malls are located in the CBD areas of Durban, Pinetown & Pietermaritzburg.
Knowing the location of malls & proximity to “susceptible” communities to rioting allows interventions or “circuit breakers” to stop similar forms of public violence in the future. Prof Marcus Felson’s routine activity theory indicates that for crimes or looting to occur one must have suitable targets (shopping malls), likely offenders or susceptible communities (eg impoverished people living in informal settlements, townships or CBD areas) & capable guardians. If you are able to create barriers to the movement of likely offenders towards the suitable targets, you can inhibit the crime or looting.
The fact that some South African police stations were “overwhelmed” & others closed their doors because they knew what was coming, is a reflection of insufficient intelligence on the public violence and looting but also insufficient police and military resources. In other words, there are no suitable guardians except of course for the many communities, whether it be taxi owners or community members, that stood up to the looters. How did they do this – in most instances by putting up barricades with armed community members.
The South African government must show the international community that we are able to use #dataanalytics to develop strategic approaches to maintain stability in South Africa. To accomplish this requires access to information but more especially, #geospatialdata.
If PoliticsWeb article by Heinrich Matthee is correct that large parts of #SouthAfrica have been lost to the underworld and organized crime, strategic approaches must be used to curtail criminal activity as well as any potential for future looting. This is a #geospatial problem.
