Violence erupted in South Africa over the imprisonment of a former polygamist president
At least 10 people have been the victims of unrest in South Africa. Despite calls from the authorities for reassurance, the violence in South Africa is only deepening. And the chaos was caused by the imprisonment of former country president Jacob Zuma.
Photo: AP
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa tagged violence and protests for unprecedented 27 years after the fall of the apartheid regime in the country.
At least 10 people were killed in the clashes – some as a result of gunshot wounds. Among those killed is a 15-year-old teenager with a rubber bullet in his chest, according to local media reports. According to police, 750 people were arrested. There are victims among the police.
According to The Guardian, robbers took away huge televisions, microwaves, clothes and linen amid unrest in the suburbs of Johannesburg, Soweto. Some even went to car and pick-up shops to make it easier to remove the loot.
Many businesses and shopping centers were forced to close, closed shop windows as a precaution, and a number of false alarms led to the panic evacuation of several shopping centers in Johannesburg and elsewhere. reports on social media and calls not only for order but also for obsolete measures to be observed.
While the unrest has so far been limited to the country's two most populous provinces (Gauteng, home of Johannesburg, the largest city and economic center in South Africa and KwaZulu-Natal), authorities have warned that clashes could pose a serious drug and food shortage across the country. This is partly due to the fact that several major South African motorways have been blocked.
There are also warnings that the riots that have taken over the country will slow down vaccination in the most affected country with coronaviruses on the Black Continent. There are also concerns that massive protests and actions by robbers may contribute to the spread of the virus.
The reason for the unrest that engulfed South Africa was the imprisonment of former Head of State Jacob Zuma. It is no coincidence that his home region of KwaZulu-Natal has become one of the main centers of unrest. Banks, shops and petrol stations have closed in the province's capital, Pietermaritzburg. In the center of Durban, the province's largest city, there have been massive burglaries and attacks on medical personnel.
The fact is that the South African Supreme Court sentenced Zuma to 15 months in prison for contempt of court after an ex-president violated a court order to testify for a high-level corruption investigation during his nine years in power in 2009-2018. .
Suddenly, the South African president attracted attention by becoming the first polygamist in the country's history to have 8 wives (five of whom had official status). It has been reported that Zuma has 18 children.
However, the reason for his fall was not the observance of family traditions in Zulu. In March 2018, Jacob Zuma was charged with corruption, extortion and money laundering.
According to media reports, if Jacob Zuma is found guilty of a series of episodes of fraud, corruption, extortion and money laundering, he faces up to 25 years in prison and a large fine.
The first investigation into allegations of corruption against Zuma began in 2005, when he was not president but served as KwaZulu-Natal's Minister of Economy and was one of the ruling party leaders. Subsequently, many other similar cases were opened, some of which were closed.
Zuma, now 80, has started serving a 15-month sentence in a penal colony in his hometown of KwaZulu-Natal. According to the press, this is the first time since the end of the apartheid era in South Africa that a former country president has been sent to prison. While optimists saw this as a milestone in the South African rule of law, the ensuing violence left a dark spot on this success.
In 2018, current President Ramaphos replaced his colleague, a member of Zuma, who faced several allegations of corruption. His own party, which the former president has devoted decades of his life to, has in fact turned its back on its leader.
According to analysts, the imprisonment of Zuma will further strengthen the moderate and pragmatic faction ruling the country. Party of the African National Congress. And it will significantly undermine networks loyal to the former president in government and bureaucratic structures.
Despite allegations of corruption, the 79-year-old former anti-apartheid fighter remains popular with many poor South Africans. So while many people in the country welcomed the court's decision to imprison Zuma, many of his supporters took to the streets to protest. Jacob Zuma's supporters believe that the former president has fallen victim to witch hunts organized by his political opponents.
Sticks, crowds, victims: videos of riots in South Africa have appeared
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