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President Cyril Ramaphosa said on Monday the deadly unrest in the country was unprecedented in post-apartheid South Africa as he deployed troops to help police crack down on violence and looting sparked by the imprisonment of ex-president Jacob Zuma.
Soldiers were dispatched to the streets of the country’s two most densely populated provinces, Gauteng, home to the country’s economic hub, Johannesburg, and KwaZulu-Natal, Zuma’s home province.
“Over the past few days and nights there have been acts of public violence of a kind rarely seen in the history of our democracy,” Ramaphosa said in a televised address to the nations, adding that he was speaking “on the heavy heart “.
Overwhelmed police face crowds that have ransacked shops, taking anything from cases of liquor to beds, refrigerators and bathtubs.
Ten people died, some with gunshot wounds sustained before the army deployed, and 489 people were arrested.
Ramaphosa said he “authorized the deployment of defense force personnel in support of police operations”.
Earlier, the military said it would help the police “to quell the unrest which has plagued the two provinces in recent days”.
It was the second day in a row that Ramaphosa addressed the nation on violence.
Violence raged when the Constitutional Court heard a request to review its landmark decision to jail Zuma for contempt of court. Judgment was reserved after a 10 hour marathon session.
On June 29, the country’s highest court sentenced Zuma to 15 months for rejecting a corruption investigation that marred his nine years in office.
Police arrested a looter at the Gold Spot shopping center in Vosloorus, southeast of Johannesburg, on Monday. By GUILLEM SARTORIO (AFP) Zuma started the sentence last Thursday but is seeking to overturn the decision.
“This tribunal made fundamentally reversible errors,” Zuma’s lawyer Dali Mpofu said in an online hearing.
But one of the judges, Steven Majiedt, bluntly declared that Zuma had been convicted “because he had disobeyed the order of this court”.
Mpofu replied that Zuma was “being punished for more than disobedience” to a court order.
Despite his reputation for corruption and scandal, the 79-year-old anti-apartheid fighter remains popular among many poor South Africans.
Looting
The epicenter of the unrest is the region of origin of Zuma, the southeastern province of KwaZulu-Natal. In its capital Pietermaritzburg, smoke billowed from the roof of a large shopping center. Banks, stores and gas stations in the city have been closed.
Retail stores in Durban and Johannesburg were ransacked on Monday as police watched.
In Johannesburg, in Gauteng province, an AFP photographer saw a corpse on a site.
Johannesburg police arrest a suspected looter in the city’s business district. By Emmanuel Croset (AFP) A police helicopter flew over Soweto, on the outskirts of Johannesburg, where looters took giant televisions, microwave ovens, clothes and linens for hours.
Many businesses have been closed.
A shopping center in the upscale suburb of Rosebank, Johannesburg, closed soon after “reports that looters are on their way,” a security officer told AFP.
Meanwhile, chemists aiding the government’s Covid-19 vaccination campaign have warned unrest in the country will slow inoculations in the continent’s worst-affected country as “vaccination sites have been destroyed and looted “.
“Our immunization program has been severely disrupted as it gains momentum,” Ramaphosa said.
The unrest began on Friday, taking the form of protests sparked by Zuma’s detention.
But looting quickly gained the upper hand, reflecting levels of hardship in a country hit by catastrophic unemployment and tightening anti-Covid restrictions.
Zuma faces another case
Once nicknamed the “President of Teflon,” Zuma began serving his prison sentence after surrendering to authorities as a deadline for surrender loomed.
On Friday, he lost a petition in the Pietermaritzburg High Court to have his case dismissed.
Zuma is a hero to many grassroots members of the ruling African National Congress (ANC). He spent a decade in prison on Robben Island during the struggle against apartheid. By Emmanuel Croset (AFP / File) An anti-graft panel is investigating the massive siphoning of state assets that occurred during Zuma’s 2009-2018 presidency.
He only testified once, in July 2019, but then quickly withdrew his cooperation.
Under the terms of his sentence, Zuma could be home long before Christmas as he would be eligible for parole in less than four months.
He is due back in court on July 19 for a separate case in which he faces 16 counts of fraud, bribery and racketeering in a 1999 gun-buying scandal when he was vice-president.
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