Troops Deployed after a Weekend of Chaos in South Africa

South Africa deployed soldiers on Monday to quell violence that erupted following the jailing of former President Jacob Zuma, after days of riots left at least six people dead. Smoke swirled from burning buildings as items from burgled shops lay strewn by the side of the road in Pietermaritzburg in Zuma’s home province of KwaZulu-Natal (KZN). The sporadic pro-Zuma protests that broke out when he handed himself over last week have escalated into looting and arson, mainly in KZN but also in Gauteng where the country’s biggest city, Johannesburg, is located. Some COVID-19 vaccination sites and clinics in Gauteng and KZN were shuttered due to safety concerns, the Gauteng provincial government and an independent pharmacy association said, further delaying a sluggish immunisation campaign. “What we are witnessing now are opportunistic acts of criminality, with groups of people instigating chaos merely as a cover for looting and theft,” South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said in a late-evening address on Monday. He said 489 suspects in the two provinces had been arrested and all government agencies had been mobilised. The judgment in the case has been reserved.

SOURCE: REUTERS