Violence erupts in South Africa over jailing of ex-president Zuma

Supporters of former South African president Jacob Zuma on Saturday launched a massive protest over his imprisonment, burning trucks, commercial property, and blocking major roads in KwaZulu-Natal province.

They demanded his immediate release from prison.

Zuma started serving a 15-month sentence for contempt of court earlier this week. His bid to be released from the Estcourt Correctional Centre was rejected by a regional court on Friday and he is set to make another attempt with the country’s apex court tomorrow.

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 early yesterday, according to witnesses.

A truck ferrying new luxury vehicles could be seen burning along a major road. A truck for the U.N. World Food Programme was also set alight after protesters took bags of maize meal from the vehicle. A large retail supermarket in the area was also looted.

Police said they arrested 27 people involved in the burning and looting.

Increased numbers of police were deployed to affected areas where they monitored entrances to major highways and searched vehicles. Some motorists were turned away from areas hit by the protests.

Scores of Zuma’s supporters who gathered outside his home in Nkandla last weekend had threatened violence should the former president be sent to prison.

Zuma turned himself over to police late Wednesday night.

Zuma was imprisoned for defying a court order to testify before a state-backed inquiry probing allegations of corruption during his term as president from 2009 to 2018.