Zuma Protest: Crowds Rampage, Hospital Operations Disrupted As Looting Continues

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A Reuters photographer saw several shops being looted in the town of Hammersdale, Kwazulu-Natal, on Wednesday. Local TV stations meanwhile showed more looting of shops in South Africa's largest township Soweto, and in the Indian Ocean port city of Durban.

Soldiers have been sent onto the streets to help outnumbered police contain the unrest and order was being restored in some places on Wednesday, such as the northern Johannesburg township of Alexandra, local TV reported.

The National Hospital Network (NHN), representing 241 public hospitals already under strain from Africa's worst COVID-19 epidemic, said it was running out of oxygen and drugs, most of which are imported through Durban, as well as food.

"The impact of the looting and destruction is having dire consequences on hospitals," the NHN said. "And the epicentre of the pandemic is within the affected provinces currently under siege." Staff in affected areas were unable to get to work, it said, worsening shortages caused by a third wave of infections.

As authorities in Durban seemed powerless to stop looting, vigilantes armed with guns, many of them from South Africa's white minority, blocked off streets to prevent further looting, Reuters TV footage showed. One man shouted "go home and protect your homes".

Other residents gathered outside supermarkets waiting for them to open so they could stock up on essentials.

The poverty and inequality fuelling the unrest has been compounded by severe social and economic restrictions aimed at curbing COVID-19. The United Nations in South Africa expressed concern that disruptions to transport for workers from the riots would exacerbate joblessness, poverty and inequality.

https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/south-african-crowds-rampage-overnight-defying-calls-end-violence-looting-2021-07-14/


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tOwfzkrxlKw

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Two South African police officers arrested while offloading goods they looted during unrest







Two South African police reservists have been arrested for being in possession of goods looted during an unrest in Gauteng. 
 
Police spokesperson, Colonel Brenda Muridili said the officers were arrested in Soweto while allegedly offloading the goods from a marked police van at a time when they were on duty. 
 

 
The police officers stationed at the Protea Glen police station, were in possession of items worth around R90 000 and they include electric appliances, clothes, groceries, a generator and sound systems.
 
Muridili said; 
 

"Police from Soweto operationalised information received from the Intelligence Coordinating Committee, which led to the arrest of two on-duty reservist constables found in possession of property alleged to have been stolen during the incidents of looting of businesses in Soweto."

 

 
It was further learnt that the officers were among 1,234 people who were taken into custody during the unrest in Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal. Muridili said 549 people were arrested in KwaZulu-Natal and 683 in Gauteng.
 
 

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Looting and unrest in South Africa leaves 72 people dead and over 1000 arrested 







At least 72 people have been killed with over 1000 arrested in the ongoing riots sparked by the imprisonment of former South African President Jacob Zuma.
 
Recall Zuma turned himself to begin serving a 15-month prison term after the Constitutional Court sentenced him to prison for defying a court order that he should testify before a commission investigating allegations of rampant corruption when he was president from 2009 to 2018.
 
His Imprisonment sparked unrest and riots with people looting from shops and warehouses in several part of the country. 
 
The South African Police Service said in a statement that the death toll had risen to 27 in Zuma's home province of KwaZulu-Natal and to 45 in the economic hub of Gauteng province, with many of the fatalities occurring in "stampedes" as scores of people looted food, liquor, clothes and electrical appliances from shops in poor areas. Other deaths were caused by explosions when people tried to break into ATM machines as well as shootings, according to police.
 

 
At least one police officer was killed in an attack on law enforcement, while seven others were injured while responding to the riots, police said.
 
So far, 1,234 people have been arrested, according to police, but the chaos has continued. Looters were seen ransacking warehouses and supermarkets in the port city of Durban on Tuesday, while rioters set fire to a chemical plant near the town of Umhlanga, just north of Durban.
 

 
The South African Police Service has reportedly recalled officers from leave and rest days, while the South African National Defence Forces have deployed thousands of soldiers to assist in the unrest. 
 
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has vowed to "restore calm and order," describing the unrest as the worst the country has witnessed since the 1990s, before the end of the apartheid regime,

 
"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 nation on Monday evening. 
 
"Let me be clear: We will take action to protect every person in this country against the threat of violence, intimidation, theft and looting. We will not hesitate to arrest and prosecute those who perpetrate these actions and will ensure that they face the full might of our law."
 
The lawlessness has disrupted South Africa's COVID-19 vaccination program, which Ramaphosa warned will have "lasting effects on our ability to consolidate some of the progress we were already witnessing in our economic recovery."
 

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Zuma Riot: Mum Throws Her Baby From A Burning Building After It Was Set Ablaze


South Africa Zuma riots: Child thrown from burning building

A mother in Durban, eastern South Africa, was forced to throw her baby from a building after it was allegedly set on fire by looters.

Dozens of people in South Africa have been killed and hundreds arrested in riots, following the jailing of former President Jacob Zuma last week.

https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-africa-57818778