South Africa in turmoil

Just last week South Africa made international headlines when former president Jacob Zuma was arrested, after being convicted of contempt of court. It seemed to be a moment to rejoice, in which justice, law and the constitutional state won. Zuma was convicted after he did not attend the corruption commission to testify on state looting and tried to avoid accountability. The start of his 15-month jail sentence could have been a moment to celebrate democracy and constitutionalism.

Instead, today the headlines on South Africa are of rising death tolls in riots, hundreds of arrests, with images of burning streets and mass-looting following several days of unrest across the nation. President Cyril Ramaphosa referred to this turmoil as some of the worst violence witnessed in South Africa since the 1990s, which took place before the end of apartheid. Yet, the calls for protests against Zuma’s arrest were a carefully lit match, thrown into the tinderbox.

COVID-19 hit the nation hard, with one of the highest death tolls in the world and record levels of unemployment. Every third person is unemployed and, amongst the young, almost every second person. The public health situation, with high COVID-related death tolls, the grief and the economic frustration and fear, in combination with racial and ethnic divisions have led to violent demonstrations. It is no surprise that the extension of lockdown measures announced by Ramaphosa on the weekend was met with further anger.

The Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom invites you to participate in our conversation on the situation in South Africa with experts from Johannesburg and Durban, two violence hotspots, and to examine the multitude of reasons for the current outburst of violence.