Riots Over Jailing of Zuma: Death toll in S Africa now 72

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said yesterday he might order more troops onto the streets as the army and police struggled to quell days of looting and violence that has claimed 72 lives.

Some citizens armed themselves to protect their property and businesses from the rampage, the worst in South Africa for years. Food and fuel supplies are running short.

Triggered by the jailing of ex-president Jacob Zuma last week after he failed to appear at a corruption inquiry, its has widened into an orgy of looting and an outpouring of anger over the hardship and inequality that persist in South Africa 27 years after the end of apartheid.

Shopping malls and warehouses have been ransacked or set ablaze in several cities, mostly in Zuma's home in KwaZulu-Natal province, especially the Indian Ocean port city of Durban, and the financial and economic centre Johannesburg and surrounding Gauteng province.

Soldiers have been deployed to help outnumbered police contain the unrest. Security forces say they have arrested more than 1,200 rioters, but the government has held back from imposing a state of emergency.

Ramaphosa met with leaders of political parties yesterday to discuss ways to address the unrest.

"President Ramaphosa welcomed proposals made by political leaders and said expanded deployment of the South African National Defence Force was being addressed," a government statement said.

The violence appeared to have abated in some areas yesterday, but in others, there was renewed burning and looting.

Citizens armed with guns, many from South Africa's white minority, blocked off streets to prevent further plundering, Reuters TV footage showed. One man shouted at a group gathered at a street corner: "Go home and protect your homes".

Other residents crowded outside supermarkets waiting for them to open so they could stock up on essentials.

Some rich Durban residents chartered small planes and helicopters out of the city, a Reuters photographer reported. Others queued for food and fuel. Many roads out of the city were blocked either by people looting or vigilantes.

Earlier, several shops were being looted in the town of Hammarsdale, KwaZulu-Natal.

Plumes of black smoke rose from a burning warehouse in Durban, while nearby people loaded up with goods scattered on the roadside.

In Alexandra township in Johannesburg yesterday, one of the city's poorest neighbourhoods, a Reuters correspondent saw soldiers moving door to door to confiscate stolen items, with the help of civilians opposed to the looting.

In Soweto, eNCA television footage showed civilians alongside police protecting malls that were yet to be hit by rioters.

Overnight the chaos spread to two other provinces - Mpumalanga, just east of Gauteng, and Northern Cape, police said.

HOSPITALS DISRUPTED

The unrest also disrupted hospitals struggling to cope with a third wave of Covid-19.

The National Hospital Network (NHN), representing 241 public hospitals already under strain from Africa's worst Covid-19 epidemic, said it was running out of oxygen and drugs, most of which are imported through Durban, as well as food.

"The impact of the looting and destruction is having dire consequences on hospitals," the NHN said.

Staff in affected areas were unable to get to work, it said, worsening shortages caused by the pandemic.

The poverty and inequality fuelling the violence has been compounded by severe social and economic restrictions aimed at curbing Covid-19. The United Nations in South Africa expressed concern that disruptions to transport for workers from the riots would also exacerbate the problems.

The rand is hovering around three-month lows, a retreat for what had been one of the best performing emerging market currencies during the pandemic.

South Africa's largest refinery SAPREF in Durban has been temporarily shut down, an industry official said yesterday.

The mayor of Ethekwini, the municipality that includes Durban, estimated that 15 billion rand ($1 billion) had been lost in damage to property and another billion in loss of stock.

Some 40,000 businesses had been hit by the unrest, he said.