People who have died were either shot or killed during looting stampedes.

The looting and violence that engulfed large parts of the country has been continuing since last week.

The deadly violence and looting that shook South Africa for the past week were planned, president Cyril Ramaphosa has alleged.

“It is quite clear that all these incidents of unrest and looting were instigated, there were people who planned it and coordinated it,” he said on Friday, reported Al Jazeera.

He made the remarks as he visited Ethikwini Municipality, which includes the port city Durban in KwaZulu-Natal province, one of the worst-hit areas

The authorities said 11 suspected instigators were under surveillance while one has been arrested.

“We are going after them, we have identified a good number of them, and we will not allow anarchy and mayhem to just unfold in our country,” Ramaphosa told reporters, according to Al Jazeera.

So far, 2203 people have been taken into custody during the violence for various offences including theft, reported Al Jazeera.

However, Ramaphosa admitted that the government could have acted more swiftly to prevent the devastating unrest.

He expressed concerns over the growing racial tensions in KwaZulu-Natal.

Background

The violence in different parts of South Africa erupted following the jailing of former President Jacob Zuma.

Crowds clashed with police as shopping malls were ransacked or burned as the anger over the arrest of the former President last week escalated into widespread violence marked by looting and vandalism.

Media reported that the violence is an apparent manifestation of the generalised anger over inequality that has persisted for 27 years after the fall of apartheid.

Since the outbreak of Covid-19 pandemic poverty has worsened in the country as the government imposed social and economic restrictions to block the spread of the disease.

Violence spread from Zuma's home in KwaZulu-Natal province to Gauteng province surrounding the country's biggest city Johannesburg

Media noted that the broad scope and the wide extent of the uprising seen in a number of different cities is unexpected.

The most striking point in the sudden protest is the multi-layered nature of the crisis, social and economic disparities, social exclusion that have continued since the time of apartheid in South Africa to the following years, marked by misrule, even during Jacob Zuma's presidency between 2009 to 2018.

Zuma was convicted of contempt of court in June after failing to attend an inquiry into corruption during his presidency.

The 79-year-old, who denies corruption, was given a 15-month prison sentence. He turned himself in late on Wednesday last week.