July 16, 2021: The deadly violence and looting that have rocked South Africa for the past week were planned, President Cyril Ramaphosa has alleged, during his first visit to areas affected by the worst unrest in the country’s post-apartheid era.

“It is clear that all these incidents of unrest and looting were instigated, there were people who planned and coordinated it,” he said on Friday.

Cyril Ramphosa made the remarks as he visited the Ethikwini municipality, including the port city of Durban in KwaZulu-Natal province, one of the worst-affected areas in a week, destroying hundreds of businesses. At least 117 people were killed and some were shot and some killed in looting stampedes.

“We are going after them, we have identified a good number of them, and we will not allow anarchy and mayhem to just unfold in our country,” Ramaphosa told reporters.

On Thursday, the government said one of the angry people had been arrested and 11 were being kept under surveillance. A total of 2,203 people have been arrested during the unrest for various crimes, including theft. Ramphosa, however, acknowledged that his government could take “swift action” to curb unrest and expressed concern about growing racial tensions in KwaZulu-Natal.

The protests began a day after Cyril Ramaphosa’s predecessor, Jacob Zuma, who wields supports among the poor populace and loyalists in the African National Congress (governing African National Congress), was sentenced to 15 months in prison for refusing to testify in a corruption investigation Was sentenced.

As they stood off with the police, angry mobs stormed shopping malls and warehouses, and when they stopped, they quickly turned into looting. South Africa has deployed more than 20,000 defense personnel to help police quell the unrest.

South Africa has seen one of the largest troop deployments since the fall of white minority rule in 1994, the government said 10,000 troops were on the streets as of Thursday morning, and South Africa’s National Defense Force were also called upon.

The reserve force has called in 12,000 troops. Although relatively calm has returned to Johannesburg, the situation in KwaZulu-Natal is “unstable,” Khumbudzo Ntshavheni, a minister in Ramaphosas’s cabinet told a news conference Thursday.

Business Unity South Africa (BUSA), a respected business lobby group, has called on the government to impose a 24-hour curfew to end the unrest as soon as possible. “This is an unprecedented state of emergency in our democratic history and the state needs to act immediately,” he said in a statement on Thursday. “We believe this must include a strict curfew in certain areas to clear the streets and allow law enforcement agencies to regain control,” he said.

It echoed fears expressed by Ramaphosa of a disruption to supply chains, including energy, food and the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.

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