 South African president Cyril Ramakosa is warning against the looting and violence in the country. He says they're demanding or damaging efforts to rebuild the economy in the wake of COVID-19. Unrest by pro-zuma supporters had been focused on his home province of Quazulu-Natal that but has spread to South Africa's economic hub Johannesburg. Amor has been set ablaze in the capital of Quazulu-Natal in Pieters-Marysburg and Faray Mavuti is joining us via Zoom. He is the senior editor of the Southern African Times. It's good to have you join us Faray. I thank you for having me. Great. So well we're seeing videos disturbing pictures of looting, burning of tires, you know a lot of you know confusion on the streets of not just Quazulu-Natal but now of course it's taken to Johannesburg. Why exactly do you think that this is happening? Is it that people support the corruption that Jacob Zuma seems to have signified before this case was final? Well again thank you for having me but I think it's important that we look at things in the perspective that they are. My job is not to literally suggest perhaps what people may or may not be supporting and if the alleged corruption cases are to be proven correct or not because so to give you a background Jacob Zuma was taken to jail not on the basis of the corruption cases it was based on a commission of inquiry and that commission of inquiry he was found to be in contempt of took the case to the constitutional court and the constitutional court presented a judgment that he was in contempt of court of the commission and also consequence was sentenced to 15 months in jail. What a lot of people deemed to have been unprecedented in fact if you read the judgment the judgment alone suggests that the approach was uncharted territory so that new precedence within a country that has a backdrop of the apartheid regime led by the time to click who equally defied a commission of course the difference being that that particular commission of the time did not necessarily go to did not place an order of arrest in this instance which was the case it set a different precedence and the and Jacob Zuma coming from a constituency of the constituency question which is Gwazulu Nadaw it was deemed as an injustice and as a consequence we have seen the disturbances. Again I know that you're not South African and you might not really have the right answer to this question but what change does this protest or all of this unrest bring I mean does it change the fact that he's been sentenced to 15 months in jail I mean of course he will have to still continue through the process of the hearings until you know the final case is done but all of this protest and the the destruction we see stars looted I mean what difference does it make and and I hear the president speaking today and calling for peace and calm why do we always see these kinds of reactions from African countries especially the likes of South Africa okay well let me try and put let me put it in a context that's more closer to home not to suggest that it is the same case but we must look at a content we must look at protests within the context of the country itself so for example when in Nigeria when we had the end source movement for instance it was an outcry because it the citizenry had deemed the issue to have been a failure on the state's part to issue justice so in such instances a society finds no other avenue to articulate its concerns in this particular context the concern being that the apex court the highest court in the land in which you cannot you cannot revisit the case had argued against what many deemed to be a principle of justice and with with multiple arguments just basing it on the minority judgment itself so I suppose how does it resolve itself well today the constitutional court was able to sit down and have a discussion our the hope would be that a combination of the presidential actions which of course introduced the military onto the ground and perhaps a political solution to that issue within the context of the ANC itself revisiting its own divisions but subsequently the judiciary re-looking at its own judgment within the context of the concerns raised by the legal team from Zuma's legal team basically perhaps you may find some resolutions in that context but to answer your question directly more directly more specifically I would say that a lot of the outcomes that we anticipate to see right in as far as looking at protest as just a solution and the looting aspect of it of which must be condemned it should speak to a more it should speak to a lack of proactive leadership especially considering the fact that the provincial leadership of Wazulu Natal had agitated this issue at the at the NEC which is the national executive committee of the of the of the governing party and the fact that these issues were ignored leaves a lot of desire well I asked that question earlier and just to put it in context because we see that these protests even though they start with good intent are always hijacked by people who become looters who steal who harass and and this is something that we see all across Africa if not you know across the world and that's why I asked if you know this at any point can really give us the answers to the questions that we hope for but anyway thank you very much for speaking with us for our mobility we appreciate it thank you hello hope you enjoyed the news please do subscribe to our youtube channel and don't forget to hit the notification button so you get notified about fresh news updates