AS THE VIOLENCE IN SOUTH AFRICA CONTINUES, THE DEATH TOLL HAS RISEN TO 72.

Authorities are battling to keep the violence that has erupted since South Africa’s former president, Jacob Zuma, was imprisoned.

South Africa : Crowds battled with police and looted or burnt shopping centres in South Africa on Tuesday, killing scores as resentment over former President Jacob Zuma’s imprisonment erupted into the country’s worst unrest in decades.

Following Zuma’s arrest last week, protests became violent, with theft and an outpouring of generalised rage about injustice that remains 27 years after apartheid ended.

Severe social and economic constraints aimed at preventing the spread of COVID-19 have increased poverty.

Security authorities claimed the government was attempting to stop the violence and theft from spreading from Zuma’s home region of KwaZulu-Natal to Gauteng province, which encompasses the country’s largest metropolis, Johannesburg.

Late Monday, President Cyril Ramaphosa stated that military will be dispatched to assist overworked police in putting an end to the disturbance and “restoring order.”