Ariel Cohen interviewed a black South African who stressed that he was armed because “the township economy belongs to the ordinary people of the township,” therefore it must be protected.

The gentleman said, “If we have the dependency syndrome of always waiting for a savior to come and save the township, we will keep dilapidating the way we are currently.”

The armed man added, “We are saying we are in partnership and joint ops with law enforcement to ensure that what’s left of the township infrastructure, from an economy point of view, is protected…It is our responsibility to ensure that we protect it.”

The man stressed that normal police forces are “not enough” and “don’t have the capacity necessary” to fight back against the kind of looting and violence that have marked South Africa this week.

He said, “It is important for the community to take responsibility and partner with law enforcement to ensure [the] infrastructure is protected.”

On July 14, 2021, Breitbart’s Joel Pollak reported violence and looting broke out near Johannesburg (in Gauteng), Durban (in KwaZulu-Natal), and other cities on Sunday, following the surrender last Thursday of former President Jacob Zuma on corruption-related contempt charges.

Pollak noted that dozens have been killed, and billions of dollars in damage caused, by rioting mobs. On Tuesday, Pollak pointed out that Durban’s supplies of bread and milk ran out due to the looting, sparking fears that the metro area would run out of food.

AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com. Sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange.