The Limited Times

Now you can see non-English news...

Military action after violent protests in South Africa

2021-07-12T11:55:40.775Z


Former South African President Jacob Zuma has been sentenced to prison. This led to protests and violence.


Former South African President Jacob Zuma has been sentenced to prison.

This led to protests and violence.

Cape Town - In response to violent protests that have been going on in South Africa for days, the government is deploying soldiers in the two affected provinces with immediate effect.

In the province of Gauteng, to which the economic metropolis Johannesburg belongs, as well as in KwaZulu-Natal, the military will support the police, a military spokesman announced on Twitter.

Since Thursday there have been violent riots in South Africa by demonstrators protesting against the imprisonment of former President Jacob Zuma. 

On Monday, a large shopping center in the east of the country was in flames, while protesters in Johannesburg paralyzed bus and train connections, as reported by the television channel eNCA.

Tens of thousands of commuters were stuck, it was said.

The demonstrations had turned into "ethnically motivated violence," warned President Cyril Ramaphosa in a TV address on Sunday evening.

Zuma belongs to the Zulu ethnic group, while Ramaphosa belongs to the Venda group and large parts of its supporters within the ruling party belong to the Xhosa group.

Tribalism (tribal system) is not tolerated in South Africa, said Ramaphosa;

Violent criminals would be prosecuted.

Zuma was sentenced to a 15-month prison sentence last week for disregarding the judiciary, starting on Wednesday. Since then, according to the government, riots have resulted in damage estimated at 100 million rand (six million euros). Two people were killed and dozens injured in exchanges of fire between demonstrators and police. Protesters blocked major highways, looted shops and ATMs, and pelted cars with stones.

Zuma has to answer to a commission of inquiry for various allegations of corruption during his term of office (2009-2018), but did not accept a subpoena. On Monday, the Constitutional Court is examining Zuma's application for the annulment of the prison sentence - a procedure that is actually not provided for in a supreme court decision. dpa

Source: merkur

All news articles on 2021-07-12

You may like

News/Politics 2024-03-13T09:23:11.377Z
News/Politics 2024-02-02T05:11:21.328Z

Trends 24h

Latest

© Communities 2019 - Privacy

The information on this site is from external sources that are not under our control.
The inclusion of any links does not necessarily imply a recommendation or endorse the views expressed within them.