S. African President Ramaphosa Deploys Soldiers After 10 Killed in the Ongoing Protests
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa on Monday said the deadly protests gripping the country are unprecedented in post-apartheid South Africa as he deployed soldiers to help police crush the violence and looting sparked by the jailing of the former president Jacob Zuma.
Gathogo Wanjiru 
Troops were sent onto the streets of the country’s two most densely populated provinces of Gauteng, which houses the country’s economic hub Johannesburg, and KwaZulu-Natal, Zuma’s home province.
“Over the past few days and nights, there have been acts of public violence of a kind rarely seen in the history of our democracy,” said Ramaphosa in a televised address to the nations, adding he was speaking with “a heavy heart”.
Overwhelmed police are facing protesters who have ransacked stores, carting away anything from crates of alcohol to beds, refrigerators, and bathtubs.
10 people have died, some with gunshot wounds sustained before the army was deployed, and 489 people have been arrested.
President Ramaphosa said he had “authorized the deployment of defense force personnel in support of the operations” of the police.
Earlier the soldiers said they will assist police “to quell the unrest that has gripped both provinces in the last few days”.
The violence raged as the Constitutional Court heard an application to review its ruling on the jailing of President Zuma for contempt of court.
