South African Unrest: 72 Confirmed Dead, Over 1000 Arrested

So far, 1,234 people have been arrested, according to police, but the chaos has continued. Looters were seen ransacking warehouses and supermarkets in the port city of Durban on Tuesday

At least 72 people have been confirmed dead and a total of 1,234 people have been arrested in the ongoing riots sparked by the imprisonment of former South African President Jacob Zuma.

Recall that Zuma turned himself to begin serving a 15-month prison term after the Constitutional Court sentenced him to prison for defying a court order that he should testify before a commission investigating allegations of rampant corruption when he was president from 2009 to 2018.

His Imprisonment sparked unrest and riots with people looting from shops and warehouses in several parts of the country.

The South African Police Service said in a statement that the death toll had risen to 27 in Zuma’s home province of KwaZulu-Natal and to 45 in the economic hub of Gauteng province, with many of the fatalities occurring in “stampedes” as scores of people looted food, liquor, clothes and electrical appliances from shops in poor areas. Other deaths were caused by explosions when people tried to break into ATM machines as well as shootings, according to police.

So far, 1,234 people have been arrested, according to police, but the chaos has continued. Looters were seen ransacking warehouses and supermarkets in the port city of Durban on Tuesday, while rioters set fire to a chemical plant near the town of Umhlanga, just north of Durban.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa in a televised address to the nation on Monday evening has called it some of the worst violence witnessed in South Africa since the 1990s, before the end of apartheid, with fires started, highways blocked and businesses and warehouses looted in major cities and small towns in KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng provinces.

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