"Of All Things": Cape Town Crowds Rush to Grab Cooking Oil After Bakkie Crashes in Milnerton

"Of All Things": Cape Town Crowds Rush to Grab Cooking Oil After Bakkie Crashes in Milnerton

  • A bakkie crash in Milnerton, Cape Town, sent bottles of cooking oil scattering across the road in October
  • Footage captured by citizen journalists shows crowds rushing onto the street to grab the goods
  • The chaotic scene went viral in South Africa, sparking a wave of divided reactions online

A road accident in Milnerton, Cape Town, turned into a scramble for groceries in October. A bakkie carrying cooking oil crashed and spilt its load across the street, prompting bystanders to rush in and grab whatever they could carry.

People in Cape Town loot cooking oil
People in Cape Town looted cooking oil in broad daylight. Image: @miss_ncube1
Source: TikTok

Footage filmed at street level and shared by citizen journalism account @thefeedcpt captured the frantic scene in broad daylight. Crowds of people can be seen darting onto the road to collect the scattered bottles before anyone could intervene.

The video originally posted by @miss_ncube1 spread rapidly across social media, drawing hundreds of thousands of views and igniting a conversation about the cost of living in South Africa. Watch the Milnerton cooking oil looting unfold:

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SA dicusses looting

Reactions in the comments were mixed, ranging from humour to genuine sympathy.

@Andre offered no judgment, writing:

"No blame here. Everything is so expensive."

@BigZ brought levity to the situation with:

"That guy with the pink bag attends our church, we need that oil Amen." Not everyone immediately recognised what was being grabbed, with

@Fagan bobbert asking:

"What is that they are looting?"

@Tim appeared both amused and surprised, commenting:

"Cooking oil of all things 🙈⚡"

Other Briefly News stories about public unrest

  • Masked demonstrators clad in balaclavas stormed and looted a luxury Louis Vuitton boutique in France during nationwide protests linked to classroom conditions and education reform.
  • A viral TikTok video filmed by @_vaalie1don9 captured the chaotic aftermath of an anti-immigration looting incident in Kraaifontein, Western Cape, showing overturned stalls and vegetables strewn across streets outside a shopping complex.
  • Primary school pupils in Inanda, KwaZulu-Natal, were captured on TikTok (@newsnexussa) participating in the broad-daylight looting of a local Pakistani-owned spaza shop.

Source: Briefly News

Authors:
Rutendo Masasi avatar

Rutendo Masasi (Weekend Entertainment and Human Interest editor) Rue Masasi is a Human Interest and Entertainment writer at Briefly News who graduated with a BA (Hons) in English from Rhodes University in 2018. Rue also has 4 years of experience in journalism and over four years of experience as an online ESL teacher. She has also passed a set of training courses by Google News Initiative. You can reach her via email: rutendo.masasi@briefly.co.za