South Africa Descends Into Massive Violence, Lootings, And Bodies Lay Everywhere

The following report is from the Trends Journal:

Deadly protests and looting broke out across South Africa—a country that has economically suffered under COVID-19 lockdowns—after the arrest earlier this month of Jacob Zuma, the former president, for failing to attend a corruption inquiry over his nine-year rule.

The Financial Times described a dire situation in the country. Cities “are trawled by gangs of looters, motorways, and vital economic arteries have shut, as have vaccination centers and businesses.” At least 200 people have been killed by either police, in stampedes, or by vigilantes, The Washington Post reported.

Major warehouses in Durban, the coastal city in eastern South Africa’s KwaZulu-Natal province and the country’s biggest port, have been burned and looted. Police officers often watch the crimes unfold without so much as blowing a whistle.

It is a war zone. Towns deserted, shops looted, bodies lying on the road. We have an internal ANC [African National Congress] battle that has spilled over onto the streets of KwaZulu-Natal… the initiative has been lost by the security services. They need urgent reinforcement.

 John Steenhuisen, the leader of the main opposition Democratic Alliance, told the FT.

KwaZulu-Natal is considered to be Zuma’s home area, The Wall Street Journal reported.

The country’s defense ministry ordered more troops into the street than any other time since the end of apartheid in 1994. The country has deployed 10,000 soldiers and there are plans to deploy 15,000 more in the next few days. 

The paper reported that Zuma has been blamed for hollowing out security forces in the country and filling them with “acolytes.” These agencies became an arm of the Zuma government and were employed to harass opposition figures, the report said.

South Africa is a country that has been dealing with a lot already, and all it needed was just a spark. President Zuma became a spark of the worst kind because it was at a time when the pressure had now come to bear, and many people had lost a lot more jobs.

Sello Hatang, the chief executive of the Nelson Mandela Foundation, told The Washington Post.

The Trends Journal has reported on the challenging economic situation in the country. On 10 March 2020, we ran an article titled, “SOUTH AFRICA: RECESSION TO DEPRESSION” and pointed out that South African president Cyril Ramaphosa’s attempt to get the economy back on track was stalled. We predicted at the time:

The current recession took hold before any disruption caused by the coronavirus sensation. As South Africa’s economic crisis worsens, citizen protests will dramatically escalate, and the government will take strong military measures to quell the riots and demonstrations.

The FT pointed out that even before Ramaphosa, previously a miner union leader and now a businessman worth some half a billion dollars, began to order lockdowns, joblessness in the country was stubbornly high among the young. Youth unemployment reached 74%. Overall unemployment in the country is about 32%. More than half of the country’s 58 million are living in poverty. 

The paper said the social safety net was hurt during the lockdowns and—because of public angst—unrest was all but certain. The government’s decision to stop an emergency $24 monthly grant for the jobless was also criticized as an unwise decision.

This all began with ANC factionalism. [In] the most unequal country in the world, there were always going to be people who felt that they had nothing to lose.

Ziyanda Stuurman, a security analyst, told the paper.

One owner of a security firm in the country told the paper that the protests are not about Zuma. 

People are hungry because of this lockdown and unemployment.

The Al Jazeera report said that “fuel, food, and medicine shortages” are expected to be felt in the country in the next few days.

Al Jazeera reported that thousands of businesses in the country have been looted, including 200 malls and shopping centers. Humphrey Jeffries, the owner of a trucking components business in the Johannesburg Central Business District, told the news network that his business has been closed:

We are not open because we will be looted of equipment that took us decades to afford and my staff of 14 must stay home until it’s safe. After 48 years of being in business, we face the real prospect of lay-offs and even closure now. We managed to get through the initial COVID-19 madness of lockdowns but this is too much now.

Humphrey Jeffries

Zuma, 79, voluntarily surrendered earlier this month to start a 15-month prison sentence. He was found guilty of contempt for failing to appear before a commission, The New York Times reported. His loyalists claim that he was the victim of a conspiracy, the paper said, noting that the claim was made without evidence.

TREND FORECAST: As we have noted in the Trends Journal, nations across the globe that were already in the grips of social unrest prior to COVID have been locked down, and the protests that were threatening ruling governments have been prohibited, despite low death rates. As Gerald Celente has noted, “When people lose everything and have nothing left to lose, they lose it.”

South Africa, as we have been reporting, is one of those nations that was wracked in protests and economically sinking before the COVID War was launched. Thus, we forecast rising crime, deepening poverty and rampant civil unrest.

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AUTHOR COMMENTARY

[6] And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. [7] For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places. [8] All these are the beginning of sorrows.

Matthew 24:6-8

[19] Arise, cry out in the night: in the beginning of the watches pour out thine heart like water before the face of the Lord: lift up thy hands toward him for the life of thy young children, that faint for hunger in the top of every street. [21] The young and the old lie on the ground in the streets: my virgins and my young men are fallen by the sword; thou hast slain them in the day of thine anger; thou hast killed, and not pitied.

Lamentations 2:19, 21

Celente says it best when he says, “When people lose everything and have nothing left to lose, they lose it.” And America has already seen some dances with this type of violence with Antifa and the BLM riots that occurred all throughout 2020. But, as regular readers know, I have been warning that what is occurring in South Africa and much more is coming to America, but on steroids, and will last for quite some time, I believe.

Military Intelligence Group Forecasts A 70% Decrease In The U.S. Population By 2025

I have been keeping up with South Africa a little bit, but stories like this are never told in the mainstream media, except a possible 30-second blip: It’s more important to talk about Britney Spears instead.

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[7] Who goeth a warfare any time at his own charges? who planteth a vineyard, and eateth not of the fruit thereof? or who feedeth a flock, and eateth not of the milk of the flock? [8] Say I these things as a man? or saith not the law the same also? [9] For it is written in the law of Moses, Thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treadeth out the corn. Doth God take care for oxen? [10] Or saith he it altogether for our sakes? For our sakes, no doubt, this is written: that he that ploweth should plow in hope; and that he that thresheth in hope should be partaker of his hope. (1 Corinthians 9:7-10).

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