Esma Karadag is a doctoral student at the African Studies Unit of the University of Cape Town.

Aydin Erdogan is a doctoral student at the African Studies Unit of the University of Cape Town and the Political Science and International Relations Department of Istanbul University.

ISTANBUL

South Africa’s fourth president, Jacob Zuma, one of the most important political figures in the country’s history, was sentenced to 15 months in prison on June 29 by the Constitutional Court on charges of interfering with the judicial process and contempt of court in the cases brought against him regarding alleged corruption during his nine-year term. While Zuma surrendered to the police on the night of July 7, the deadline he had been given, this development also ignited the most violent street demonstrations and protests that South Africa has witnessed in recent years.

Jacob Zuma, who had been previously sentenced to 10 years in prison for fighting against the apartheid system, served as president from 2009 to 2018. However, Zuma’s name was often brought up in connection with allegations of corruption. Some claim that Zuma, a former freedom fighter from a poor rural family, plundered the state with his new colleagues after the liberation struggle was won. Although prosecutors dropped the cases against Zuma, who was first accused of corruption in 2005, similar cases have been filed against him since he stepped down in 2018. Zuma is currently charged with 16 counts of offenses ranging from alleged involvement with the notorious Gupta brothers, who fled South Africa in 2018, to personal expenditures from the state budget and being bribed to sign a billion-dollar arms deal between South Africa and the French company Thales in 1999.

Zuma claims that his political rivals are using the courts to target him and denies all charges leveled against him. Zuma also claims that Western states and their “puppets” in South Africa conspired against him in order to keep whites’ economic dominance in the country intact.

Demonstrations devolve into violence and looting

Many interpret Zuma’s behavior as being in the same frame of mind as when he was fighting against the Apartheid regime. Although the corruption case against him has yet to be concluded, some circles believe that Zuma’s imprisonment as a former president is significant in terms of demonstrating how far the legal system has progressed during the country’s 27-year democratization process. In addition, Zuma’s decision to surrender was seen as a victory for the rule of law. However, the tables turned when the protests that started in Jacob Zuma’s hometown and political stronghold of KwaZulu-Natal quickly spread to Gauteng province, where the country’s largest city and economic powerhouse is located.

Protests in South Africa’s two most densely populated provinces have devolved into violence and looting, deviating from their intended purpose. Crowds have stormed warehouses, factories, gas stations, and shopping malls. Zuma supporters have shut down the country’s main roads, or economic arteries, in order to demand the release of their political hero. The country is experiencing the most violent events since the 1990s, with highways closed, businesses and warehouses looted, and fires breaking out not only in major cities in the KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng provinces but also in small towns.

With more than 200 shopping malls looted, the destruction in the country, which has already been hit the hardest by the COVID-19 pandemic in continental Africa, has reached terrifying proportions, especially in Soweto, the Johannesburg township where Nelson Mandela once lived. Many civilians have been killed in the stampedes. The procurement of food, fuel, and medicine came to a halt. Looting and destruction, on the other hand, have had disastrous consequences in the country’s hospitals.

South Africa’s largest oil refinery has also announced that operations have been halted as a result of these events and the destruction of supply routes entering and exiting KwaZulu-Natal. Long lines formed in front of shops and gas stations in the port cities of Durban and Johannesburg. Although no state of emergency has been declared yet, ministers have warned that essential food supplies may run out.

On top of all this, since the protests began, the military has also been deployed to assist the police. Despite the presence of thousands of soldiers on the streets to assist the police, the attacks on warehouses, supermarkets, shopping malls, clinics, and factories could not be prevented. In many areas of Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal provinces, small groups of locals formed civilian defense assemblies, dubbed “defense squads” by local media, to protect their homes and businesses. These small armed groups stood guard at Soweto’s only unlooted shopping mall, doing their best to prevent looters from breaking into local food shops in Kliptown. Makeshift barricades were set up to prevent access to neighborhoods. Local taxi companies assumed responsibility for the protection of many critical areas.

Polarization in the ANC

Many believe that current President Cyril Ramaphosa has failed to demonstrate decisive leadership in calming public outrage and making South Africans feel safe during this process. Ramaphosa’s decision to deploy only 2,500 soldiers received backlash, as it was pointed out that Ramaphosa had deployed 70,000 soldiers last year during the country-wide curfews enforced to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

The possibility of sabotage leading to the outbreak of the events is also raised while fake news fueling the unrest is widely circulated on social media. South African Minister of State Security Ayanda Dlodlo said that authorities had received information that former members of the State Security Agency associated with Zuma were inciting violence. The African National Congress party (ANC) announced that the social media posts of Duduzile Zuma-Sambudla, Jacob Zuma’s daughter, were being investigated. Zuma’s son, Edward Zuma, had also stated that if his father were to be arrested, the country would be engulfed in bloodshed.

Zuma’s core supporters claim he was the target of a witch hunt orchestrated by political dissidents. Many experts, however, argue that the country’s turmoil is being caused by increasing polarization within the ruling ANC party. Zuma’s imprisonment is viewed as a victory for the party’s moderate and pragmatic wing. On the other hand, ANC Secretary-General Gwede Mantashe stated that the ongoing violence, looting, and vandalism in Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal have nothing to do with former President Jacob Zuma and that those behind the protests are simply “thugs” taking advantage of the situation.

Origins of the violent demonstrations

Although there have been a number of social movements in South Africa that quickly morphed into looting acts in the past, none had ever been as severe as those witnessed in recent weeks. The main issue that needs to be examined is why protests that could occur in any country turn into looting events in South Africa. To understand this issue, we must look into the developments the country has seen in the fields of fundamental rights and economic welfare since its transition to democracy.

When the Republic of South Africa was re-established in 1994, it was founded on the principle of being an exemplary country for the rest of the world, where people from all walks of life could live in prosperity and have the safety they needed to live with dignity, where state oppression was abolished and human rights were guaranteed to the highest level. The colonial and apartheid regime in South Africa, which left behind its “white supremacy” periods after great struggle, had led to severe social imbalances in every field in the country. Although the country has truly come a long way in terms of democracy since the end of white supremacy in their governmental systems, one could say that there has not been much improvement in the socio-economic field. Although Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) policies are still in place today to increase black people’s participation in all aspects of life, concrete steps have yet to be taken to address the socio-economic problems including, but not limited to, income inequality, inequality in educational opportunities, and poverty. For this reason, there is some disappointment with democracy, which was won as a result of the struggle led by leaders such as Nelson Mandela, Walter Sisulu, and Ahmed Kathrada.

The fact that black South Africans, who have been exploited for hundreds of years and then humiliated, excluded, and deprived of public opportunities through racial discrimination for decades, have made little progress even in the last 27 years of democracy, with the exception of a small black elite, and have even regressed in areas such as security and economy, says a lot about the current situation.

Chronic problems of unemployment and land

While the unemployment rate in South Africa was 20% in 1994 during the democratic transition, it has now risen to 57.47%, according to a study conducted in 2019. According to this data, South Africa is by far the worst country in the world in terms of youth unemployment rates. Low income and unemployment stand out as the most significant factors that sparked the unrest. In fact, it is reported that although the unemployment rate was 32.6% in the first quarter of 2021, it has since risen to 42.3% and reached a record high of 74.7% among young people. The minimum wage, on the other hand, is far too low to improve the working population’s standard of living beyond that of the apartheid era. In a country where even the average house rent is $500, the average minimum wage of $250 forces many black South Africans to live in tin shacks without running water or electricity.

When we examine the data published by Statistics South Africa (SSA) in June 2020 on child poverty, we see that 60% of the children in the country live below the poverty line. Similarly, according to SSA’s Inequality Trends and National Poverty Lines reports published in 2019 and 2021, respectively, 52% of the country’s population is severely affected by inequalities. Workers protest at every opportunity to raise the minimum wage in the country, which also ranks first in the world in terms of income inequality. Likewise, barriers to quality education and security issues that pose a serious threat to the country are among the factors that have contributed to the escalation of tensions.

When the legacy of the apartheid system was inherited in 1994, the white minority-owned 85 percent of the country’s land. Almost everyone in the country agrees that if the land was distributed fairly, all socio-economic problems in the country would be solved because the land problem includes not only the problem of agricultural lands but also the resettlement problem of people who were thrown out of their homes during the apartheid era. Despite the fact that fair distribution of agricultural and residential land to all people was one of Mandela’s most important goals as the country’s legendary leader, and all ANC governments established after him, no progress was made on this issue. Despite the goal of 30 percent set during Mandela’s tenure, only 1% of the land had been redistributed by the time he left office. Furthermore, only 10% of the land has been redistributed from white owners to the rest of the population as of today. Currently, white landowners, who account for 9% of the population, own 73% of the country’s land, while black landowners, who account for 76% of the population, own only 4%.

Looking back over South Africa’s 27-year history of democracy, it seems that while non-whites have made some political gains, the socioeconomic gains of the vast majority have remained the same, or even diminished. It does not, then, seem too surprising that the protests that started with Zuma’s arrest turned into acts of looting in South Africa, where poverty, unemployment, and inequality are at seriously high levels.

In conclusion, the recent protests in South Africa have resulted in more than 200 deaths, the arrest of more than 3,400 people involved in looting acts, billions of dollars in losses, damaged investor confidence, currency depreciation, and South Africa’s reputation as a “regional leader” being severely tarnished. It is not hard to predict that even more, difficult days are ahead of South Africa in the near future because of the events that took place following the arrest of former President Zuma, who pursued policies based on Zulu nationalism, and because of the (lack of) socioeconomic order, which has worsened as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

*Opinions expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Anadolu Agency.

​​​​​​​*Translated from Turkish by Can Atalay