Violence has erupted in South Africa as Zuma supporters launched a massive protest over the weekend demanding his immediate release.
On Saturday 10th/07/2021, supporters launched a massive protest over his imprisonment, burning trucks, commercial property, and blocking major roads in KwaZulu-Natal province demanding his immediate release from prison.
Zuma started serving a 15-month sentence for contempt of court bid to be released from the Estcourt Correctional Centre was rejected by a regional court on Friday 9th/07/202.
His supporters in KwaZulu-Natal, his home area, blocked roads, set trucks alight, and damaged shops which they then looted at various spots in the province.
At Mooi River, near Pietermaritzburg, about 20 trucks were stopped and set on fire on Saturday 10th/07/2021, according to BBC World news.
South African police arrested 28 people and one of the country’s biggest highways was closed over violent protests against the imprisonment of former President Jacob Zuma.
KZN police spokesman Jay Naicker said the 28 arrests had happened since Friday on charges including public violence, burglary, malicious damage to property, and contravention of COVID-19 lockdown regulations.
There were no deaths or injuries so far [Rogan Ward/Reuters]He said protesters had set alight some trucks near Mooi River, a town on the N3 highway that leads from Durban to Johannesburg, and shops had been looted in Mooi River and eThekwini, the municipality that includes Durban.
Law enforcement officers were deployed to all districts in the province but there had been no deaths or injuries so far, he added. The N3 was closed at Mooi River in the early afternoon on Saturday.
Ramaphosa, whose allies engineered Zuma’s removal in 2018, said in a statement that “criminal elements must be met with the full might of the law.”
Asked about the protests by public broadcaster SABC, a spokesman for Zuma’s charitable foundation said: “The righteous anger of the people is because of the injustices that they see being dispensed to President Zuma.
Zuma has challenged his sentence in the constitutional court, partly on the grounds of his alleged frail health and the risk of catching COVID-19. That challenge will be heard today 12th/07/2021