The South African government on Wednesday confirmed that the recent unrest in the country has claimed the lives of 276 people, raising the death toll from 215 announced earlier this week, reported Reuters.
“Since the unrest, a total of 234 deaths as related to the unrest were reported in KwaZulu-Natal to date,” Cabinet minister Khumbudzo Ntshavheni said in a statement.
He added that another 42 deaths were recorded in Gauteng province and that the police are investigating 168 of the deaths for murder. Some of the people died in stampedes, while others died in burning buildings or were crushed by falling objects.
The South African minister said stability had returned to the two most affected provinces KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng, which were shaken by unprecedented riots. He added that police were carrying out “mopping-up operations to ensure opportunistic and copycat activities do not find traction”.
The violence broke out a day after South African former president Jacob Zuma began serving a 15-month jail term for not obeying the court’s order to present before the Zondo corruption inquiry. The riots spread through Zuma’s hometown KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng provinces, South Africa’s most populous provinces accounting for half of the country’s GDP.
The police have arrested six people so far on charges of incitement to commit public violence. Several others are being held for looting.
On Tuesday, a South African court postponed Zuma’s long-running corruption trial to next month. Zuma appeared virtually in the Pietermaritzburg High Court from his prison. His lawyers had applied to have the case postponed by up to three weeks because of the unrest in the country and the coronavirus pandemic to allow time for the trial to resume physically. They argued Zuma had a right to appear in person during the trial.
The trial will now be held from August 10- August 13.
