Entrepreneur Mike Nkuna was on his way to meet his church leader for a prayer on Monday morning when he noticed a large group of people preparing to attack one of his many shopping malls in Soweto.
In disbelief and shock, he stopped his car next to Jabulani Mall and said his prayers when he saw officers rushing towards the gate of Jabulani Police Station.
"The time was around 5.30am. When the police saw the masses they ran away and closed the gates [of the police station]. I felt really empty and said we don't have government, we are on autopilot," he said.
Nkuna said as the attack on his mall was unfolding he thought of Struggle icon late Winnie Madikizela-Mandela.
"If something happened Winnie Mandela would be the first on the scene. The difference now with our leaders is that when they get elected they move to the suburbs, surround themselves with 20 bodyguards and they become unreachable. We don't have servants of the people," said Nkuna, the founder and chairman of Masingita Group.
Masingita Group, which employs at least 12 000 people, owns 15 shopping centres in Gauteng, Mpumalanga, Free State and Limpopo.
The diversified group also owns filling stations, a recycling company, a furniture manufacturer and car dealerships.
Three of the group's shopping centres - Jabulani, Protea Glen and Bara - fell victim to a wave of vandalism and looting against large retail companies and warehouses mainly in Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal and left hundreds of people dead and injured.
The damage suffered by his business was not what Nkuna had envisioned when his entrepreneurial journey began 46 years.
He started off by setting up a construction company and in 1980 he took funds from his construction business to buy a vacant piece of land in Chiawelo, Soweto, where he three years built his first shopping complex, Mangalani Centre.
He started expanding his malls in Soweto in 2006 when he launched Bara Mall. In 2008 he opened Jabulani Mall followed by Protea Glen Mall in 2012.
Nkuna told Sowetan that the vandalism and looting has caused a big reputational damage to his shopping centres, especially after it had taken him many years to convince major retailers to become his store tenants.
"The damage to my malls has hit my business hard, though we do have the insurance company to cover such things. In the development arena you'll have the insurance that will cover the building and Sasria will cover political activities like this one. But the bad thing is that the people who were working there as from Monday the no-work-no-pay rule kicks-in, and they won't receive a salary until the shopping centres are repaired," he said.
"The other difficulty is to convince the retailers to remain in Soweto because when things are volatile, the retailers become jittery but I am convinced that they will stay with us."
He said his team was on site and they are collaborating with communities in a clean up campaign.
"I have a big and strong team and we are waiting for them to do an assessment and by next week I hope to know how much it will cost
"After the cleaning up, the engineers and quantity surveyors will be able to access the premises (and make an assessment). But I would say it would cost close to R500 million (for the three malls to be fully functional again)," he explained.
He said he was saddened by what happened though there was nothing he could do to prevent it.
"I am a positive man because I believe I am God sent and I won't be deterred about what has happened. I am going to build even bigger things than these ones. I am just about to build a new city in Soweto near the N12. We won't stop (doing business and building), we are moving forward.
"When I ventured into the shopping centre market it was not easy because you had to have a belief from the retailers, as you are aware that most of the shops are owned by white people. So if you are a developer and you are not trusted you'll deliver the product, the tenants won't follow you. So I had to build that kind of credibility and to build that credibility was my journey I embarked on until today," he said.
"If you want to build something it takes time. I told myself I was going to build a parallel economy so that instead of people going to urban areas ... buy things, they must buy close to their doorstop.
"What has happened now has taken us back. The journey we have travelled for 46 years in putting up those structures. And, the very same people we were building these shopping centres for them, they don't have any place to buy from. Now they are required to travel to urban areas to go and buy, which means they will spend more money and time on travelling long distances."
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