Riot and looting haunt South Africa | At least 72 deaths are counted within six days of the epidemic

The wave of riots and massive looting that South Africa has suffered since last week, with levels of vandalism unprecedented in the country’s democratic history, has already left 72 dead. The incidents continued Wednesday in parts of South Africa despite the interventions of the police and the army, who try to find the instigators. Food and fuel shortages began to threaten the African nation after the sixth day of a wave of violence that began after the arrest of former President Jacob Zuma, sentenced to 15 months in prison for breach of justice. This fact has fueled society’s unease over high levels of poverty and unemployment, and the government’s handling of the covid-19 pandemic.

Looting, arson and self-righteousness

According to the latest official report published by the police, the total number of deaths due to riots and looting since last Friday stands at 72, while the number of detainees already stands at 1,234. On Wednesday, although less significant than the previous days, incidents were still recorded in parts of the two regions most affected by the wave of violence, namely the eastern province of KwaZulu-Natal and the province of Gauteng, where Johannesburg and the Praetorium.

The police, completely overwhelmed, had to receive the support of 2,500 soldiers and Wednesday, after six days of escalating violence, this presence doubled to 5,000 soldiers. In addition, the security forces indicated that they were investigating each of the deaths, in principle linked to jostling resulting from looting, but also due to explosions, fires and gunfire.

“We are pressing the accelerator so that what happened does not go further in terms of destruction”, promised the South African Minister of Security, See Célé, speaking to the media during a visit to a devastated shopping center in the Mamelodi district, outside Pretoria. The senior official speculated that “Organized crime could hide behind hunger and social problems in the community”.

the, who in recent days it has come under heavy criticism for the inability of the security forces to anticipate and deal with the wave of vandalismHe also warned that the many people affected by the incidents should not respond by applying justice with their own hands. In this sense, in the district of Vosloorus, south-east of Johannesburg, the death of a teenager who was allegedly killed by drivers of Taxis informal after being caught trying to rob a business.

The main shopping center in the area was devastated and partially burned down, and several bodies were found at the scene. “We spend our lives serving the community and see what we get in return. It breaks my heart,” said Mike de Freitas, 45, a butcher shop owner who had gone to check the damage. In KwaZulu-Natal province, sugar cane fields were set on fire and livestock stolen. “People have looted the shops and now that they have no more food, they are going to attack the farms,” ​​lamented the director of the agricultural organization AgriSA Van der Rheede.

In the coastal city of Durban, aerial shots showed hundreds of people looting large commercial stores. Woman was seen dragging her baby from the second floor of a building to save it from a fire, after the shops on the ground floor were set on fire. Passers-by were able to welcome the baby in complete safety. “All I could do was trust complete strangers”said the 26-year-old Naledi Manyoni in dialogue with the BBC, and said she and her daughter Melokuhle are doing well.

The significant material damage has not yet been quantified and Food and fuel supply problems are to be feared in the coming daysAs a result, many South Africans lined up early in the morning at supermarkets and gas stations. In addition, the violence has forced the disruption of, for example, medical services for the treatment of chronic diseases, such as diabetes, tuberculosis and HIV, and the application of covid-19 vaccines.

According to the South African president, Cyril Ramaphosa, incidents are on a scale never before seen in a democracy, comparable only to the convulsed transition that South Africa experienced in the early 1990s after the end of the apartheid segregation system. “The path of violence, plunder and anarchy only leads to more violence and devastation. It leads to more poverty, more unemployment and more loss of innocent life. This is not who we are as a people, ”Ramaphosa lamented in a message to the nation on Monday.

From pro-Zuma protests to general malaise

Jacob Zuma, 79, was an apartheid fighter who spent 10 years in prison in Robben Island Prison, near Cape Town. In democratic South Africa, he became vice-president and then president, before being impeached by the ruling African National Congress (ANC) in 2018 as a series of corruption scandals multiplied. Yet Zuma remains popular with many poor South Africans, especially among grassroots ANC activists who see him as an advocate for the marginalized.

The incidents began last Friday in KwaZulu-Natal, the birthplace of former president, which on June 29 had been sentenced to 15 months in prison for contempt of court after repeatedly refusing to testify for one of the corruption cases surrounding him. Although Zuma peacefully surrendered to authorities on Wednesday evening, he had previously insisted that he was the victim of politico-judicial persecution and that the prison term would be a “death sentence” for him.

In this context, his supporters came out to cut roads as a sign of support. Over the next few days, the protests spread across KwaZulu-Natal and spill over into other areas. By the weekend they had already turned into a chaotic wave of riots, which more than for political reasons are linked to pre-existing social issues such as extreme inequalities, high widespread crime rates in the country and dissatisfaction with the management of the pandemic.