Zuma last week he began serving a 15-month prison sentence for contempt of justice. Violence later erupted in his home province of KwaZulu-Natal in the east of the country and spread over the weekend to Guateng Province, home to Johannesburg, South Africa’s largest city. The riots, which, according to the AFP agency, were fueled by the dismal economic situation of the local population rather than concerns about the fate of the former statesman, were accompanied by extensive looting.
According to the police, it was chaos caused by “criminals and opportunistic individuals” who looted shops and malls. They took away television, food, mattresses, refrigerators and other goods.
They remained dead after the clashes
In both provinces, clashes between security forces and protesters have claimed dozens of people and killed six, including an 11-year-old boy. Johannesburg city center was full of broken shop windows and burned car wrecks on Monday morning. Police helicopters fly over the city, protesters block rail and bus traffic, and set up barricades in the streets of the center. In the east of the country in Pietermaritzburg, a large shopping center and other buildings burned down.
The office of current president Cyril Ramaphos said the head of state would speak to the nation on television on Monday. In a speech on Sunday, the president warned that the protests had turned into “ethnically motivated violence”.
The covid-19, which triggered a deep economic crisis in the country, also contributed to the dissatisfaction of South Africans, the DPA agency noted. South Africa is the worst affected country on the African continent with 2.2 million confirmed cases since the beginning of the epidemic in absolute numbers, and the spread of the infection has significantly contributed to the problems of food insecurity and poverty.
– .
