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At least four people have been killed and hundreds more arrested in connection with the looting and violence in South Africa last week following the arrest of former president Jacob Zuma for contempt of court.
Police in riot gear stormed a rally on Friday, removing hundreds of protesters by truck. Police in riot gear stormed a rally on Friday, removing hundreds of protesters by truck. Demonstrators have blocked highways and burned cars.
Zuma was sentenced to 15 months in prison for defaming a nine-year corruption scandal. Zuma’s lawyers made the final attempt on Monday to force the Constitutional Court to overturn their ruling as the 79-year-old is too weak to survive. Legal experts say the experiment is unlikely to succeed.
President Cyril Ramaphosa, who replaced Zuma in 2018 and wants to fight corruption, on Sunday condemned “occasional but dangerous demonstrations”. Ramaphosa promised “we will not tolerate crime” but the clashes continued overnight, especially in Gauteng, the country’s economic capital, and KwaZulu-Natal, where Zuma began his ruling on Thursday.
“While there are others who can be hurt and angry right now, there can be no reason to be cruel, destructive and disruptive,” Ramaphosa said on Sunday.
Zuma has been jailed according to South Africa’s Constitutional Court, which last month convicted him of refusing to respond to allegations of bribery during his nine-year term. The verdict was hailed as a legal victory in Africa’s most industrialized country, Zuma, who repeatedly attacked the courts and predicted a notorious revolt against judges. Zuma denies any wrongdoing.
Violence and outrage among supporters have revealed a rift in the ruling African National Congress, with many militants calling Zuma’s name online. “It is a tragedy for all South Africans that some of the violence is due to racial discrimination,” Ramaphosa said.
South Africa’s intelligence service said on Sunday that hundreds of people had blocked a highway and attacked police in Johannesburg in a “fictitious crime”, gunfire erupted and courts were forced to close on Monday in Durban, the capital. of KwaZulu-Natal, when a shopping center was set on fire in Pietermaritzburg, the provincial capital.
Zuma’s base last week described the riots as “the proper outrage of the people… Which some call brutality.”
KwaZulu-Natal, where Zuma’s power is based, has long been plagued by political violence, including killings and arson. Equality in poverty and poverty in South Africa could also turn demonstrations into seizure tinderboxes, experts say.
The main opposition party in the South African Democratic Alliance said Ramaphosa “must accept the ANC’s actions in this regard, because this is their internal struggle in our streets”. The party on Monday called for troops to be deployed to prevent violence.
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