Unrest in South Africa increases fars of food and fuel shortages

 Violence and looting has raged in South Africa for the sixth day running, stoking fears of food and fuel shortages as disruption to farming, manufacturing and oil refining began to bite amid the country’s worst unrest in decades.

More than 70 people have died as grievances over the jailing of former President Jacob Zuma have widened into an outpouring of anger over the inequality that remains 27 years after the end of apartheid.

Poverty has been exacerbated by severe social and economic restrictions aimed at curbing the spread of COVID-19.

More than 1,200 people have been arrested in the lawlessness that has raged in poor areas of two provinces, where a community radio station was ransacked and forced off the air on Tuesday and some COVID-19 vaccination centres were closed, disrupting urgently needed inoculations.

Many of the deaths in Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal provinces occurred in chaotic stampedes as thousands of people stole food, electric appliances, liquor and clothing from stores, police said.

The deployment of 2,500 soldiers to support the overwhelmed South African police has so far failed to stop the rampant looting.

South African security forces have arrested 1,754 people in connection with days of looting, arson and violence, a senior minister in the presidency’s office said.

The government was engaging with the consumer council to ensure there are no food shortages arising from rampant pillaging of shopping centres, malls and warehouses, cabinet minister Khumbudzo Ntshavheni said.

Claims for damage and theft from businesses affected by civil unrest in South Africa are likely to be between 7 billion rand and 10 billion rand ($481 million to $683 million), the head of the only insurer covering political violence in the country told Reuters news agency.

Sasria, a state-owned insurer set up after private firms stopped underwriting risks relating to political violence due to unrest during apartheid, has received around 100 million rand in claims so far, its managing director Cedric Masondo told Reuters, adding this was expected to rise significantly.

The company, the only insurer to offer cover for such risks, expects total claims of up to 10 billion rand, or 12 billion rand in a worst-case scenario – making the unrest likely the most significant event in terms of the value of claims since Sasria was set up in 1974, Masondo continued.