Johannesburg (AFP), Jul 12 – South Africa said Monday it was deploying troops to two provinces, including Johannesburg, after unrest sparked by the jailing of ex-president Jacob Zuma led to six deaths and widespread looting.
Overwhelmed police are facing mobs who have ransacked stores, carting away anything from boxes of alcohol to beds, refrigerators and bath tubs.
Six people have died, some with gunshot wounds, and 219 people have been arrested, according to a police tally issued before the army deployed.
Troops will “assist law enforcement agencies deployed in Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal provinces… to quell the unrest that has gripped both provinces in the last few days,” the armed forces said in a statement.
President Cyril Ramaphosa, who at the weekend called for calm, is expected to addess the nation later Monday, his office said.
The violence raged as the Constitutional Court was hearing an application to review its landmark decision to jail Zuma for contempt of court. An announcement is expected later.
The country’s top court on June 29 slapped Zuma with a 15-month term for snubbing a probe into the corruption that stained his nine years in power.
Zuma began the sentence last Thursday but is seeking to have the ruling set aside.
“This court made fundamentally rescindable errors,” Zuma’s lawyer Dali Mpofu argued in an on-line hearing before nine of the court’s 11 judges.
