JOHANNESBURG – South African police said on Saturday that 27 people had been arrested over violent protests linked to former president Jacob Zuma’s imprisonment.
Protests raged this week in parts of KwaZulu-Natal (KZN), Zuma’s home province, after the former president handed himself over to police to serve a 15-month jail term for contempt of court, according to Reuters.
On Friday, the high court dismissed Zuma’s application to have his arrest overturned, in a case seen as a test of the post-apartheid nation’s rule of law.
Provincial police spokesperson Jay Naicker said law enforcement officers had been deployed to all districts in KZN and were on high alert.
He said protesters had set alight some trucks near Mooi River, a town on the N3 highway that leads from Durban to Johannesburg, and shops had been looted in Mooi River and eThekwini, the municipality that includes Durban.
