South Africa: President Ramaphosa denounces “provoked and planned” violence

Published on : 07/16/2021 – 12:04

After a week of violence, the South African government is looking for those responsible. The unrest and looting in South Africa “were provoked, there are people who planned and coordinated them,” accused President Cyril Ramaphosa on Friday (July 16) during a visit to Durban, in the United States. east, where violence erupted on July 9.

“We will prosecute them, we have identified a good number of them, we will not allow anarchy and chaos” in the country, he added, as police investigate 12 people suspected of being behind the outburst of violence in recent days.

“Economic sabotage”

The day before, the government had announced that “one of these people has already been arrested and surveillance has been increased on the 11 others”, through the voice of the Minister of the Presidency, Khumbudzo Ntshavheni, who had denounced “an economic sabotage “.

The first incidents erupted last week the day after the incarceration of former President Jacob Zuma, sentenced to 15 months in prison for contempt of justice. They have spread to the greater Johannesburg area, amid rampant unemployment and new anti-Covid restrictions.

The president, whose first field visit since the beginning of this crisis, one of the most severe crossed by the country since the advent of post-apartheid democracy, assured that he had remained in contact, hour by hour, with the officials of the province and the police.

He said he was “extremely concerned about what happened here”, adding that the violence in the Zulu province had left 95 dead, with four new deaths in the toll announced the day before, bringing the total toll to at less 121 deaths in the country.

The destruction “takes us back, in terms of economic recovery,” regretted the president.

With AFP