“We will not allow lawlessness and chaos. "The unrest and looting in South Africa" ​​were provoked, there are people who planned and coordinated them ", accused South African President Cyril Ramaphosa on Friday, as the death toll reached the number impressive 212 in one week. The situation "is gradually but surely returning to normal," Minister Khumbudzo Ntshavheni said during the daily government press briefing, noting that no incident was to be reported in the urban area of ​​Johannesburg, against nearly 1,500 still in Zulu country (in the east) for the past twenty-four hours.

Cyril Ramaphosa, who appeared on the ground for the first time since the unrest began on July 9, said from Durban, the major port of Kwazulu-Natal (East), that the people behind the violence would be continued.

"We have identified a good number," he said, while the police are investigating 12 individuals suspected of being behind this outburst of violence.

The destruction "takes us back"

The first incidents - burnt tires and blocked roads - erupted last week, the day after ex-President Jacob Zuma, convicted of contempt of justice, was imprisoned.

They then spread, against a backdrop of endemic unemployment and new anti-Covid-19 restrictions, to the point of provoking the intervention of the army.

South African health officials are worried that recent crowd movements, especially during looting, are causing a peak in Covid-19 contaminations. The country is going through a terribly deadly third wave, fueled by the highly contagious Delta variant. The destruction "takes us back, in terms of economic recovery," regretted the president, describing this crisis as one of the most severe crossed by the country since the advent of post-apartheid democracy.

Responding to criticism of the government's action, the South African president admitted: “We could have done better, we were overwhelmed by the situation.

"But the situation" could have been much worse "if the police had not been there, he said.

He promised that up to 25,000 troops, ten times more than at the start of the week, would soon be operational to secure the country.

Arrived by helicopter in the township of Alexandra, north of the economic capital, the army chief of staff, General Rudzani Maphwanya, promised that he would not let anyone "challenge the authority of the state" .

"We are not going to allow the thugs, the crooks to continue," he said.

To date, more than 2,500 people have been arrested, the government said.

We must not panic by rushing to the stores for fear of shortages, asked the Minister of Agriculture, Thoko Didiza: "We have enough food reserves in the country".

But residents of Durban, who continued to wait in long queues in front of supermarkets, spoke of a shortage of bread in particular.

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