South Africa’s death toll from days of riots on Thursday rose to 117 even as the worst of the violence appeared to ease, with the deployment of thousands of soldiers starting to take effect.
Authorities have arrested almost 1,500 people, including 12 who allegedly instigated the unrest, resulting in rampant looting and the destruction of businesses in two key provinces, South African Acting Minister in the Presidency Khumbudzo Ntshavheni told reporters in Pretoria.
The situation remains volatile in KwaZulu-Natal province, the heart of the violence, while the economic hub of Gauteng should stabilize soon, she said.
Photo: AFP
About 10,000 troops are now on the streets, leading to a drop in the number of incidents.
“These are not demonstrations, this is economic sabotage,” Ntshavheni said.
Protests erupted on Saturday last week after former South African president Jacob Zuma was imprisoned for defying a court order, before spiraling out of control as marauding mobs began to loot stores, banks and medical facilities.
The rising death count represents the most lethal uprising since the buildup to the end of apartheid in 1994, when violent demonstrations and subsequent crackdowns were relatively commonplace.
Telecommunications towers and other infrastructure have been destroyed, while transport networks and a program to vaccinate people against COVID-19 have been disrupted.
Business Leadership South Africa, one of the country’s main business lobby groups, estimates that damages amount to more than 5 billion rand (US$343 million) for the retail industry alone.
More than 200 shopping malls were targeted, more than 800 stores were looted, and 100 were completely burnt, the group’s chief executive officer, Busi Mavuso, told Bloomberg via e-mail.
Attention is now turning to whether insurance companies will be able to cover the cost of the carnage, with claims estimated to run up to several billions of rand.
The sheer number of affected businesses means that it is likely that processing claims would be slow and an interim fund might have to be set up for support, said Martin Kingston, an official at Business Unity South Africa, another industry group, which is calling for a rolling 24-hour curfew in the key provinces and a full deployment of the South African military to bring an end to the crisis.
“It will take two to three years to recover the infrastructure lost here,” former Goldman Sachs Group Inc. Sub-Saharan Africa chairman Colin Coleman said. “To restock these centers will take 10 weeks, and we are going to have severe shortages for some time.”
Some groups have urged South African President Cyril Ramaphosa to give the police and military additional powers to end the violence, fearing that communities and private militias would mete out their own forms of justice.
Video footage published on Johannesburg-based radio station Kaya 959’s Web site showed private security guards firing live ammunition at a mob on Tuesday.
“I really would like to see our president talking to people, and giving a level of affirmation and confidence,” Investec PLC chief executive officer Fani Titi said. “At this point in time, we need much firmer communication.”
RESPONSE: The transit sends a message that China’s alignment with other countries would not deter the West from defending freedom of navigation, an academic said Canadian frigate the Ville de Quebec and Australian guided-missile destroyer the Brisbane transited the Taiwan Strait yesterday morning, the first time the two nations have conducted a joint freedom of navigation operation. The Canadian and Australian militaries did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The Ministry of National Defense declined to confirm the passage, saying only that Taiwan’s armed forces had deployed surveillance and reconnaissance assets, along with warships and combat aircraft, to safeguard security across the Strait. The two vessels were observed transiting northward along the eastern side of the Taiwan Strait’s median line, with Japan being their most likely destination,
‘NOT ALONE’: A Taiwan Strait war would disrupt global trade routes, and could spark a worldwide crisis, so a powerful US presence is needed as a deterrence, a US senator said US Senator Deb Fischer on Thursday urged her colleagues in the US Congress to deepen Washington’s cooperation with Taiwan and other Indo-Pacific partners to contain the global security threat from China. Fischer and other lawmakers recently returned from an official trip to the Indo-Pacific region, where they toured US military bases in Hawaii and Guam, and visited leaders, including President William Lai (賴清德). The trip underscored the reality that the world is undergoing turmoil, and maintaining a free and open Indo-Pacific region is crucial to the security interests of the US and its partners, she said. Her visit to Taiwan demonstrated ways the
GLOBAL ISSUE: If China annexes Taiwan, ‘it will not stop its expansion there, as it only becomes stronger and has more force to expand further,’ the president said China’s military and diplomatic expansion is not a sole issue for Taiwan, but one that risks world peace, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday, adding that Taiwan would stand with the alliance of democratic countries to preserve peace through deterrence. Lai made the remark in an exclusive interview with the Chinese-language Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times). “China is strategically pushing forward to change the international order,” Lai said, adding that China established the Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank, launched the Belt and Road Initiative, and pushed for yuan internationalization, because it wants to replace the democratic rules-based international
WAR’S END ANNIVERSARY: ‘Taiwan does not believe in commemorating peace by holding guns,’ the president said on social media after attending a morning ceremony Countries should uphold peace, and promote freedom and democracy, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday as Taiwan marked 80 years since the end of World War II and the Second Sino-Japanese War. Lai, Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) and other top officials in the morning attended a ceremony at the National Revolutionary Martyrs’ Shrine in Taipei’s Zhongshan District (中山) to honor those who sacrificed their lives in major battles. “Taiwanese are peace-loving. Taiwan does not believe in commemorating peace by holding guns,” Lai wrote on Facebook afterward, apparently to highlight the contrast with the military parade in Beijing marking the same anniversary. “We
RSS