The violence, to which President Cyril Ramaphosa responded by deploying the military, has claimed the lives of over 70 people while over 1,700 people have been arrested.
Violent protests erupted in the eastern province of KwaZulu-Natal after former South African president Jacob Zuma was jailed on 7 July for contempt of court after he refused to testify before a special commission that has been investigating corruption allegations linked to his tenure as head of state.
The week-long riots did not only impact South Africa’s economy but those of other nations in the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) region including Botswana, Namibia, Lesotho, Swaziland, and Zimbabwe.
And an unstable South Africa risks weakening the socio-economic ties that exist within the SADC bloc, says Tinashe Manzungu, president of the Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce (ZNCC).
On 15 July, President
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