Fake news, vigilantism and a lack of any police presence have fuelled racial tensions in Phoenix, north of Durban, where at least 20 people were killed this week.
Indians were pitted against their African neighbours living in the informal settlements of Bhambayi, Zwelisha and Amaoti, sparking fears of a repeat of the orchestrated riots of 1949.
On Friday, President Cyril Ramaphosa, who earlier visited parts of violence-torn eThekwini, attributed the racial tension to malicious instigation on social media aimed at whipping up a racial frenzy as part of a broader insurgency campaign to destabilise the province.
When the Sunday Times visited Phoenix on Thursday night, the shells of dozens of torched vehicles were illuminated by burning debris and fires where heavily armed civilians stood guard.
The men, who reeked of alcohol and dagga, carried large-calibre guns including shotguns. They said they were the first line of defence for the community when the police failed to protect them.
"If you come looting, we will be shooting," said one of them when asked about the action they took against criminal elements this week.
There was little if any police presence when the township came under fire on Monday and Tuesday. In response, people set up patrols and checkpoints. The ensuing racial profiling, and even shooting of suspected looters, sparked accusations of racism and vigilantism.
An unconfirmed video that purports to show at least two dead men lying in bushes, and another of a man apparently shooting a suspected looter lying on the ground, fuelled a social media storm under the hashtag #PhoenixMassacre.
Blessing Nyuswa of the Bhambayi informal settlement claimed five people have been killed in Phoenix since Monday.
Nyuswa said almost everyone in the settlement is guilty of looting, and conceded that Phoenix residents are protecting themselves and their neighbourhood - but people from Bhambayi are being denied entry to the area.
"We are not being allowed into Phoenix and a lot of people work there. People were killed and the families have not been allowed to go identify the bodies," said Nyuswa.
Community leader Lungisana Chiliza said he received word on Monday that his neighbour had been shot dead and had his car torched in Phoenix.
Indians were pitted against their African neighbours, sparking fears of a repeat of the orchestrated riots of 1949
"The community of Phoenix were right in protecting their shops because at the end we need to buy things and protect the economy, but we didn't want to see the violence," said Chiliza.
Loven Karim, community policing forum chair of sector six in Phoenix, said the community had taken a stand to protect its properties and family.
"The problems arose from criminal elements. Some people didn't expect the community of Phoenix to stand up like this because we have always been the soft chickens," said Karim.
Phoenix resident Themba Dlamini said African and Indian people lived side by side in Phoenix and he had not experienced any form of racism in his 15 years of living there.
"We understand when you are protecting a shop, but it is something else when you kill someone if they are just passing through the area," said Dlamini.
Benedict Xolani Dube of the Xubera Institute, which is making efforts to help rebuild the riot-torn province and mediate the conflict, said he does not believe the Phoenix situation has any similarities to the 1949 riots.
"Societies globally have this hostile love and hate relationship if they are in close proximity to each other," said Dube. "It will always be there where you find two race groups, especially who are not that well-off. They will have this hostility towards each other and try to find comfort and dignity by undermining the other.
"The real issue is the failure of the ANC to transform society, to make it a society of equal opportunities."
About 10km away, in KwaMashu, resident Mxolisi Ntinza said looters appeared to have had military training.
"It is obvious that the chaos was political and well co-ordinated by the instigators, certainly highly trained and most probably with military background because the manner in which it unfolded was akin to guerrilla warfare," he said.
Three malls in KwaMashu were targeted by looters. One of them, Bridge City Mall, was visited by Ramaphosa on Friday.
The area was a hive of activity when the Sunday Times visited on Thursday. Many residents were still openly drinking despite alcohol sales having been banned for three weeks.
Residents boasted that this was the "after-party" - Monday having been the main event, with braai celebrations on every street amply supplied with liquor and meat thanks to looting.
"This looting and ransacking was deliberate criminality sponsored by those who have failed us, Zuma included with his ANC comrades," Ntinza said. "Their mission is to dilute our brains and defocus us from the real challenges and their epic failures."
He said it was unfortunate that unemployed people living in poverty fell for the trickery of politicians "who are having it nice with their friends and families and will not feel any impact".
"As you can see, it is almost midday on a weekday and people are drowning in alcohol, a culture that was popularised by the ANC as soon as it rose to power. We used to have Umrhabulo [political education] classes in the ANC of yesteryear; today, bashes and uncontrollable consumption of liquor are the order of the day."
KwaMashu taxi owner Sanele Zwane said he is frustrated because he has minibus and bakkie payments to make at the month-end, and "with shopping malls in ashes, who will we be transporting and to where? It pains me that it will take months to rebuild what the people have destroyed."
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