BDriving police cars and trucks, looting supermarkets, and blocking roads: South Africa’s Kwa-Zulu-Natal and Gauteng provinces have been anarchic for several days.Since the arrest of the former president Jacob Zuma In the past week, thousands of people went out and indiscriminately destroyed private and government property in various cities. According to official data on Tuesday, 26 people were killed and many injured. The police reported that hundreds of people were arrested. In many places, citizens hide at home or try to defend themselves. The economic life of most parts of the disaster-affected area has stagnated.
president Cyril Ramaphosa On Monday evening, it was announced in a short televised speech to the nation that it would use the military to support the completely overwhelmed police. They are acts of public violence that “rarely occur in our democratic history.” The previous week, 79-year-old former President Zuma was sentenced to 15 months in prison by the Constitutional Court for ignoring justice.
Ramaphosa warns of racial boundaries
He used new excuses to refuse to testify by the investigation committee that was investigating corruption during his tenure. Recently, he ignored the ruling of the Constitutional Court. During his nine-year presidency, an Indian entrepreneur family with whom he was a friend greatly enriched himself and effectively controlled the state apparatus from the background. Last week, Zuma was sent to prison shortly before the deadline for arrest.
Speaking of the riots, President Ramaphosa said that some people “referred to it as a form of political protest.” In the beginning, some people tried to call for violence and chaos “by race”. “We know that most of us refuse to mobilize according to these lines in principle.” What is happening now is nothing but a “criminal act of opportunism.” Some groups vandalized to cover up robbery and theft.
Every Tuesday
Ramaphosa reviewed the predicament before the first democratic elections in 1994 after the end of apartheid. “The passage of time has not erased the dark days from our memory,” he said in his speech. “As we meet this challenge, let us remember-as we prepare for democratic change-we come together as a society to end the rampant violence in many communities.” Prior to this, he had reported by name. All these people belonged to victims of different races.
In many places, looters use a full shopping cart to take their loot from the store and load it into a vehicle that is already waiting. Most importantly, wine that was once again banned during the corona pandemic was stolen by crates. For safety reasons, public facilities and roads, including the N3 motorway, one of the most important transportation routes between the port of Durban and the economic metropolis of Johannesburg, have been closed.
Zuma’s daughter’s ultimatum
Many people cannot go to work due to chaos and safety reasons. Some residents in the affected area reported that there were almost no police in sight. There are rumors that the police indirectly supported the protests by inaction. However, in the media, there are recordings of the police using rubber bullets against the protesters.
Zuma’s daughter and former president’s supporters provoked protests on Twitter. Duduzile Zuma, 37, wrote: “Ramaphosa, we will give you three days to let you release Zuma.” “Otherwise the country will be burned, I promise.” She later wrote that even in the darkest period, She will also support her father. Jesse Duarte, interim general secretary of the ruling African National Congress Party, condemned these remarks. Duduzile Zuma and others must explain these tweets and their goals.
At present, the riots show no signs of ending. On Twitter, the group announced a “mass strike and work stoppage” in several cities in the Eastern Cape on Tuesday and Wednesday. The radical opposition Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) threatened that if soldiers were deployed, they would join the protests. “All fighters must be prepared. They will not kill us all. We need political solutions to political problems, not soldiers,” the party leader Julius Malema wrote on Twitter. The party’s lawyers later asked the president to give a more detailed explanation on the use of the army. The Federal Army put great pressure on Zuma during his presidency and resisted the appearance of the state president in Parliament.
At the same time, negotiations are underway Constitutional Court Regarding the imprisonment of Zuma. After the sentence was pronounced, his lawyer proposed a motion for exemption from the penalty. To the surprise of some legal experts, the Constitutional Court accepted the motion. The lawyers argued that, given his age and health, the former president could not survive the imprisonment.
