July 15, 2021: The arrest of former President Jacob Zuma last week, after he failed to appear in a corruption probe, has sparked outrage in South Africa and has led to a slew of looting and protests over the hardships and inequalities that have persisted in the country even after 27 years have elapsed since South Africans threw off the apartheid regime.
More than 70 people have been killed in the unrest, the worst in South Africans have seen in years and hundreds of businesses have been destroyed. Food and fuel supplies are running short. Shopping malls and warehouses have been vandalized or set on fire in several cities, mostly Zuma’s home in the province of KwaZulu-Natal, especially the Indian Ocean port city of Durban, and the financial and economic center of Johannesburg and the surrounding province Guateng.
But as a sign of public reaction, residents in some areas on Wednesday handed over suspected looters to police, closed the entrances to the malls and, in some cases, set up roadblocks or intimidated them. In Vosloorus, south of Johannesburg, minibus taxi operators, many with guns, fired shots into the air to intimidate looters. “We just can’t allow people from anywhere to come and go,” said Paul Magolego, a spokesman for the Vosoloorus Taxi Association, adding that taxi drivers had not been in business since Monday due to unrest.
Underscoring the dangers of such vigilantism, a 14-year-old boy was shot dead in Vosoloorus. Magolego said the drivers arrived at the scene after the boy had already died. Several civilian members of South Africa’s white minority, armed with guns, blocked roads in Durban to prevent further looting. Others were forming online groups to help clean up and rebuild the destroyed neighborhoods.
Security forces say they have arrested more than 1,200 people, while President Cyril Ramaphosa discussed the unrest with political party leaders on Wednesday. The violence appears to have subsided in some areas, but there have been renewed arson and looting in other areas. The government said 208 incidents of looting and vandalism were recorded on Wednesday, as the number of troops deployed to help police rose to 5,000.
But Defence Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula later told parliament she had “submitted a request for deployment of plus-minus 25,000” soldiers. Troop deployments are authorised by the president.
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