2021 South African unrest

2021 South African Riots
Part of Civil unrest in South Africa
An aerial view of the aftermath of looting from the unrest in Springfield, Durban, Kwa-Zulu Natal. SANDF deployment in South Africa during the 2021 South African unrest. Looting during the unrest at a local mall in Dlamini, Soweto, Gauteng Province.
Date	9 – 18 July 2021 (1 week and 1 day)
Location	South Africa Mostly within the Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal provinces
Caused by	Imprisonment of former President of South Africa Jacob Zuma[1] Economic inequality[2] Criminality Unemployment[3]
Goals	Release of Jacob Zuma from prison Social justice (factions)[4]
Methods	Arson[5] Civil disobedience[6] Demonstrations[7] Looting[8] Internet activism[9]
Resulted in	Widespread looting and riots Racial tensions Deployment of the South African National Defence Force[10][11] Economic distress[12] Civilian unrest[13][14] COVID-19 vaccination crisis[15][16]
Parties
Public Pro-Jacob Zuma protesters Criminal elements Community members, including looters Government of South Africa South African National Defence Force South African Police Service Provincial Government KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Government Gauteng Provincial Government Public Private security guards Community members Neighbourhood watch groups[17][18] Vigilante groups[19] Business owners Taxi associations[20]
Lead figures
No centralized leadership Cyril Ramaphosa David Mabuza Bheki Cele Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula Sihle Zikalala David Makhura
Casualties
Death(s)	354[21]: 35
Arrested	5,500[22]

The 2021 South African unrest, also known as the July 2021 riots,^[23] the Zuma unrest^[24] or Zuma riots,^[25] was a wave of civil unrest that occurred in South Africa's KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng provinces from 9 to 18 July 2021, sparked by the imprisonment of former President Jacob Zuma for contempt of court.^[21]: 52 Resulting protests against the incarceration triggered wider rioting and looting, much of it said to be undertaken by people not in support of Zuma^[26] and fuelled by job layoffs and economic inequality worsened by the COVID-19 pandemic policies.^[27][28] The unrest began in the province of KwaZulu-Natal on the evening of 9 July,^[29] and spread to the province of Gauteng on the evening of 11 July,^[30][31] and was the worst violence that South Africa had experienced since the end of Apartheid.^[32]

Zuma was taken into custody after declining to testify at the Zondo Commission, an inquiry into allegations of corruption during his term as president from 2009 to 2018.^[33] The Constitutional Court reserved judgment on Zuma's application to rescind his sentence on 12 July 2021.^[34][35][36] The South African government reported that 354 people had died in the riots.^[21] As of 12 August 2022, 5,500 people had been arrested, in connection with the unrest.^[22]