Shocking footage shows a woman throwing a toddler from a burning building after looters set fire to the shops below amid a wave of violence sweeping across South Africa.
At least 45 people have been killed in clashes sparked by the jailing of former president Jacob Zuma.
Soldiers have now been deployed onto the streets to try and contain the unrest, which has spread from Mr Zuma’s home in KwaZulu-Natal province to the country’s biggest city Johannesburg and surrounding Gauteng province, and to the Indian Ocean port city of Durban.
President Cyril Ramaphosa said the violence was ‘unprecedented’ in post-apartheid South Africa, with buildings ransacked or set ablaze, roads blocked and businesses looted.
Mr Ramaphosa said: ‘Parts of the country are reeling from several days and nights of public violence, destruction of property and looting of the sort rarely seen before in the history of our democracy.
‘What we are witnessing now are opportunistic acts of violence.
‘There is no grievance, nor any political cause, that can justify the destruction we have seen.’
He warned on Monday that the unrest could harm the country’s vaccine drive, while disruption to supply chains could lead to food and medicine shortages in the coming weeks.
Mr Zuma, 79, was sentenced last month for defying a constitutional court order to give evidence at an inquiry investigating high-level corruption during his nine years in office.
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