Long-standing structural inequalities, political entrepreneurs and Covid-19 fuelled the riots that left more than 300 dead in an outburst of violence in July.
This was the analysis of public commenters during the 7th Presidential Roundtable on After the Riots, hosted by the Academy of Science of SA .
One of the speakers, Prof Adam Habib, director of the London School of African and Oriental Studies, said structural inequality in society had led to major political polarisation. “Covid-19 has accelerated the inequalities to a crisis point. People were actually starving; many have lost their jobs while others were dying. [During the riots] a group of [political] members decided to intervene, it doesn’t matter whether they were planning a coup or not, or to weaken the president. In the context of SA, Covid-19 lit the fire,” Habib said.
He said that with the increasing dissatisfaction around service delivery across the country, a collapse of order was inevitable.
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