AUTHORITIES IN South Africa fear a resurgence of violence with more than 200 persons killed over the last week.

The unrest was sparked on July 8th when former President Jacob Zuma started serving a 15-month prison sentence for contempt of court.

Investigators believe that the attacks were deliberately provoked as part of a broader strategy by political opponents to force current president Cyril Ramaphosa to pardon Zuma or even step down.

The riots are some of the the worst the country has seen since the end of the apartheid regime 27 years ago with multiple shops looted, factories, warehouses and clinics all becoming targets of the unrest.

Zuma’s stint in prison comes after being charged with numerous involvement in corruption.

In a third televised speech, President Ramaphosa addressed the nation on Friday, saying that the violence had been an attempt to insight an insurrection. “The constitutional order of our country is under threat. These actions are intended to cripple the economy, cause social instability and severely weaken – or even dislodge – the democratic state,” said the president, who ousted Zuma in 2018.

“Those responsible for organising this campaign of violence have not yet been apprehended and their networks have not yet been dismantled … We must therefore remain vigilant.”

“The second phase is to burn resources, [then] they will be able to wage a serious war and hide behind the people. They can mobilise the masses if people are hungry. A serious military operation is yet to come. People go hungry because there is no food, and that is when they will launch the next phase,”

South Africa’s leaders fear the worse from Zuma’s supporters who seek to undermine Ramaphosa’s position in government by infiltrating their attempts to stabilise it, and lead security forces to opening fire on civilians.

William Gumede, chairman of the Democracy Works Foundation, a group supporting governance in Africa, told the Guardian that the violence had been well-coordinated and well-funded. “Strategic commercial hubs were blocked, strategic roads were blocked at really key points. It was very organised,” said Gumede.

“The arson, the looting and then the burning of malls, the burning of warehouses … that indicates a really strategic destruction of the economy of KwaZulu-Natal.”

The country’s future remains in uncertainty as they also grapple with the delayed COVID-19 vaccination roll out and a third wave grips the nation. Small businesses and the repairing of infrastructure is estimated to take years until life is restored to normal for millions.