Violence escalates in recent days – Total arrested 1,234
Seventy-two people have been killed in violence in South Africa following the arrest of former President Jacob Zuma last week, many of them on foot, and looting has resumed today.
Violent incidents have escalated in recent days and tonight the death toll rose to 72 , police said. “The total number of those arrested is 1,234,” he added.
Indicatively, 26 are already dead in the province of KwaZulu-Natal, east, where the first episodes broke out on Friday. Another 19 were in the Johannesburg area where the riots spread, according to the latest official figures.
Some of these victims were trapped during the looting of shopping malls.
The worst violent episodes of recent years are spreading as the discomfort increases. Despite the authorities’ call for calm and the deployment of nearly 2,500 troops, thousands of South Africans continued to flood markets to steal hangars and shops, especially in Durban, the large port city on the Indian Ocean.
- Apartment building collapses: Confirmed death toll rises to 90
- New anti-homophobia protests in the wake of the murder of 24-year-old
- At least 12 killed by bus fall into ditch
In Soweto, a huge city near Johannesburg, the bodies of ten people were found Monday night, hours after the brutal looting of the Dofaya shopping center.
Meanwhile, the Prime Minister of KwaZulu-Natal, Sihle Zikalala , revealed earlier today that people had died “on foot in the riots”, without further elaboration. The images from the looting showed crowds cluttered and cluttered, everyone rushing to pick up giant TVs, furniture, diapers, cans, anything they could get their hands on. Inside the looted shops, rioters served on their own, leaving employees in despair at a time when economic conditions were exacerbated by pandemic-related restrictions. “Why? But why?” said Thaddeus Johnson weeping,
55 years old, having collapsed between the damaged shelves of her small shop that sold balloons and decorations for parties and celebrations.
The order forces, weak, opened rubber balls to dissolve the crowds, triggering panic scenes in commercial parking areas or in the streets of cities that were affected, on the sidewalks that were full of broken glasses and garbage
, President Sirila Ramafaza, underlined the unprecedented nature of these violent incidents following the establishment of post-apartheid democracy.
