Zuma graft trial delayed as South Africa reels from riots
‘INDIANS IN DURBAN SUBURB CAUGHT UP IN VIOLENT ETHNIC CLASHES’
A SOUTH AFRICAN court granted former president Jacob Zuma’s request for a delay in his arms deal corruption trial on Tuesday (20), and adjourned proceedings for three weeks.
Zuma is accused of receiving kickbacks over a $2 billion (£1.47bn) arms deal from the 1990s. He pleaded not guilty in May to charges including corruption, fraud and money laundering. “The trial is adjourned to August 10-13, 2021,” Pietermaritzburg high court Judge Piet Koen said. He did not give the reasons why he allowed the delay.
Zuma started a 15-month sentence for contempt of court. His jailing this month triggered some of the worst unrest of the post-apartheid era. South Africa plunged into chaos, with looting and rioting erupting in Zuma’s home region of KwaZuluNatal before spreading to Johannesburg.
A total of 215 people were killed, according to the authorities, while the total financial cost of the unrest could reach 50 billion rand (£2.5bn), according to consultancy Intellidex. The violence, which subsided by the weekend, was widely seen as at least partially in response to Zuma’s imprisonment.
There were rising tensions among communities in some parts of the country.
Some white minority and Indian communities – who are generally better off than the black community – had armed themselves to fight off rioters. In Durban’s Phoenix neighbourhood, home to many south Africans of Indian descent, authorities reported conflict between them and black citizens.
India’s foreign minister S Jaishankar last Wednesday (14) spoke to his South African counterpart Naledi Pandor who assured him her government was working to enforce law and order and an early restoration of normalcy. ‘Appreciate the conversation with South African foreign minister Naledi Pandor today. She assured that her government was doing utmost to enforce law and order. Early restoration of normalcy and peace was the overriding priority,’ Jaishankar tweeted.
Since looting erupted on July 9, many neighbourhoods mobilised to defend homes, businesses and infrastructure against looters.
“There are ugly scenes playing out on the streets of Phoenix, the racial direction that these unrests are taking must be arrested speedily,” police minister Bheki Cele said.
Twenty people were killed in Phoenix since the start of the violence last week, he later said on television.
Young men of south Asian heritage brandished handguns and machetes at their checkpoint in Phoenix, where they said they deterred troublemakers. But the group was accused of racism and mistreatment – of wrongly barring individuals from the area simply for being black – and others were criticised for vigilante justice.
“We are not racist,” insisted Karim Loven, the head of a local policing forum. “If you see the media they’re saying that it was a racial thing, whoever is saying this is racial, they are talking nonsense,” he said. “We stood out here to protect our families.”
The hashtag #PhoenixMassacre trended on social media by Thursday (15), with some users alleging excessive use of force by members of the ethnic Indian population.
At a Phoenix roadblock, one masked community member manning the improvised checkpoint said bluntly: “If you’re looting, we’re shooting, because we’ve got nothing to eat”.
“It’s caused a lot of strain on the community,” said balaclava-clad Trevin Bramduth, an armed employee of a private security firm called KZN VIP Protection, who was deployed to the area.
“Everyone is actually scared to leave their homes. A lot of people have obviously lost their jobs as well.”
South Africans of Indian origin make up just 2.6 per cent of the country’s 59 million people, according to official statistics, with a high concentration in and around Durban.
Indians make up 85 per cent of the population in Phoenix.
“Our shopping centre has been looted and it’s burned down, right down,” said Karim.
“At the moment we are protecting this complex here, this one food chain Save Right, and protecting the garage. This is the only place that now we are getting food.”
In a visit to Durban last Friday (16), president Cyril Ramaphosa said calm had been restored to most of the affected areas, but the destruction will cost the country billions of rand.
Wall Street bank JPMorgan said the unrest would force
South Africa’s economy to contract by three per cent in the third quarter and drag down full-year growth. The government said on Tuesday that at least 40,000 South African businesses were looted, burnt or vandalised during last week’s rioting.
The police arrested more than 2,500 people suspected to be involved in inciting violence and these cases are being prioritised, Ramaphosa said.
In his trial scheduled for August, Zuma, 79, faces 16 charges of fraud, graft and racketeering related to the 1999 purchase of fighter jets, patrol boats and equipment from five European arms firms when he was deputy president. He is accused of taking bribes from a firm, French defence giant Thales, which has been charged with corruption and money laundering.
Both Zuma and Thales have pleaded not guilty. There were fears his latest court appearance could lead to a flare-up of violent protests from his support base. That has not materialised so far.