South Africa's rule of law is shaken by days of protests and looting.
Whole industrial areas went up in flames, now the desperation sets in due to acute supply shortages.
Johannesburg - With one of the largest military operations in its young democracy, South Africa wants to curb the violence that has been going on in parts of the country for days.
After a week of looting and arson, an additional 25,000 military personnel are to be deployed in addition to the 5,000 soldiers who have already been mobilized. All available reservists received marching orders, the army said in a statement. They should report to their units with all their equipment on Thursday. Defense Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula had informed parliament on Wednesday evening about the planned operation, she told the TV channel eNCA. President Cyril Ramaphosa has yet to approve it.
Although there were still isolated indications of looting, clean-up work began in many places on Thursday.
Initial estimates assume damage in the hundreds of millions and around 20,000 jobs destroyed.
Officially, the authorities continue to speak of 72 dead and many injured.
On TV pictures of a looted hardware store in Pietermaritzburg, the recovery of several corpses could be seen - eyewitnesses spoke of at least seven other dead.
Dozens of dead, high damage and jobs destroyed
The supply bottlenecks announced by President Ramaphosa made themselves felt in the Alexandra township near Johannesburg, but also in the port city of Durban. There were miles of queues in front of gas stations that were still open. After fighting over the scarce gasoline, soldiers secured the place. The aerial photos also showed long queues of more than a hundred meters in front of the grocery stores that were still open.
Police Minister Bheki Cele announced the discovery of tens of thousands of live ammunition in a suburb of Durban on Wednesday evening.
He told TV broadcaster Newzroom Africa: "Some people are preparing for war." It is wrong that people only pillaged out of hunger - some also armed themselves.
"A dangerous situation," he said without further explanation.
According to official information, 15 people were killed in tension with the Indian population in Durban's suburb of Phoenix - Cele spoke of "ugly scenes" there.
Durban - a twin city of Bremen - has had a strong Indian population since the colonial days.
Attacks on minorities
Cele also announced house searches in the affected areas, which had started in the Gauteng province around Johannesburg. "In many households, in many houses in South Africa, there will be pretty hard times because we will come in and ask for receipts," he said at a press conference in Phoenix on Thursday.
The province of KwaZulu-Natal on the east coast and the metropolitan area around the cities of Johannesburg and Pretoria (Gauteng province) are particularly hard hit by the violence. The government mobilized the military because the police outnumbered the looters. Neighborhood groups and civil vigilante groups are now forming. The influential taxi companies are now also trying to prevent attacks on important infrastructure. They had also been directed against clinics, drug stores and even schools.
The riots had started with protests against the imprisonment of ex-President Jacob Zuma from KwaZulu-Natal. A week ago he was sentenced to 15 months in prison for disregarding the judiciary. The protests quickly developed into large-scale riots. The military is now to be deployed primarily in the affected provinces. According to military expert Darren Olivier, 30,000 soldiers would mobilize the entire armed forces of the Cape State. It is therefore unclear whether South Africa can still participate as planned in an auxiliary force of the regional alliance of states, SADC, for the fight against terrorism in the neighboring state of Mozambique. dpa
