Posted on 07/16/21
| News Source: i24
The flareup is described as post-apartheid South Africa's worst crisis
Unrest in South Africa has claimed 212 lives, the government said on Friday, a sharp jump from the 117 deaths announced the previous day.
Government minister Khumbudzo Ntshavheni told a news conference most of the new deaths had been recorded in the southeastern KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) province, the epicenter of the violence, but said the situation was "gradually and firmly returning to normality".
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa alleged that deadly violence and looting that have shaken the country over the past week were planned.
"It is quite clear that all these incidents of unrest and looting were instigated -- there were people who planned it and coordinated it," Ramaphosa said during a visit to KZN, the flarepoint for post-apartheid South Africa's worst crisis.
South African police were rapidly overwhelmed when riots and looting erupted in KZN, sparked by the jailing of former president Jacob Zuma, and then spread to Johannesburg.