On Wednesday, crowds in South Africa ransacked shops and businesses, ignoring government appeals for an end to a week of violence that has killed more than 70 people, destroyed hundreds of businesses, and forced the closure of a refinery.
Protests that erupted after ex-president Jacob Zuma was sentenced to prison last week for failing to appear before a corruption investigation have devolved into looting and an outpouring of broad outrage over the suffering and inequality that linger 27 years after apartheid ended.
In various towns, shopping malls and warehouses have been destroyed or set ablaze, especially in Zuma’s home province of KwaZulu-Natal (KZN), as well as Johannesburg and the surrounding Gauteng province.
However, it expanded overnight to two other provinces: Mpumalanga, immediately east of Gauteng, and the Northern Cape, according to authorities.
On Wednesday, a Reuters photographer witnessed multiple shops being stolen in Hammersdale, Mpumalanga. Meanwhile, local television stations broadcasted footage of more shoplifting in South Africa’s largest township, Soweto, and the port city of Durban.
Due to the turmoil, South Africa’s largest refinery, SAPREF in Durban, has been temporarily shut down, according to an industry official.
The UN in South Africa voiced worry that the violence was hampering transportation for workers and medical personnel, as well as causing food, medicine, and other vital products shortages.
“This would compound the country’s already-existing social and economic woes caused by unemployment, poverty, and inequality,” it warned in a statement late Tuesday.
