translated from Spanish: South African riots add 72 dead after 5 days of protests

Johannesburg.- After five consecutive days of riots and mass looting that South Africa has suffered since last week, at least 72 people have died and 234 have been arrested. The looting began in the city of Johannesburg, south Africa’s largest, and in the province of KwaZulu-Natal. Shopping malls and shops were razed to the fore by mobs of people, who also set fire to vehicles and buildings and blocked roads. Last Monday night, 10 people were reported killed during a stampede that brought the death toll in Gauteng province, where Johannesburg is located, to 19.Read more: Alert! AMLO says the process to idiotize young people has intensifiedThe protests began in the wake of the imprisonment of controversial former president Jacob Zuma (2009-2018) for contempt, who refused to testify about alleged acts of corruption in his nearly 10 years in power.  However, the demonstrations degenerated into a wave of looting and indiscriminate vandalism of an unprecedented magnitude in the democratic history of the country, to the point that the current South African president, Cyril Ramaphosa, compared the panorama with the turbulent transition that took place in the early 90s after the end of “apartheid”. The path of violence, looting and anarchy only leads to more violence and devastation. It leads to more poverty, more unemployment and more loss of innocent lives. This is not who we are as a people,” Ramaphosa lamented last night in a message to the people. As of 21:00 local time yesterday, the toll of the riots was 72 dead, 45 of them in Gauteng and 27 in KwaZulu-Natal, according to data from the South African police, which also confirmed a total of 234 detainees. In this context, 2,500 soldiers were deployed to support the police in containing the riots, which did not prevent chaos from prevailing in many places due to the large influx of people. Burning buildings and vehicles and looted shopping malls have marked the violent protests. Photo: EFE “The looting continues, so I can’t say that (the situation) is under control,” admitted gauteng head of government David Makhura.President Ramaphosa described the situation as “acts of opportunistic criminality, with groups of people instigating chaos merely to loot and steal.” Impacts on medical services and vaccination Along these lines, the president warned that the chaotic situation will affect the country’s food and health security, and will mean a severe setback for the economic recovery and the progress of vaccination against Covid-19.The Ministry of Health of South Africa confirmed that in the areas affected by the riots there were interruptions in vaccination , as well as problems of access to other basic medical services, such as treatments for diabetes and HIV. Read more: Armed commando ambushes police and releases ‘Commander Squidward’ in Reynosa, Tamaulipas All this comes at the worst time of an aggressive third wave of Covid-19 driven by the delta variant, with some 2.2 million infections and more than 64 thousand deaths. The authorities have called on communities and social leaders for civil society to organize to prevent and deter the looting and violence that South Africa has suffered for five consecutive days. With information from EFE. Armed civilians take ambulance wounded in Culiacan

Original source in Spanish