117 Dead In South Africa Riots, Government Admits

Some 117 people have died and many others have been injured in the violent unrest in parts of South Africa over the past week, according to government figures from Thursday, Ralf Krueger reported for Deutsche Presse-Agentur (dpa.)

Meanwhile, as deadly rioting continues, more than 2,200 people have been arrested, said Khumbuzo Ntshaveni, a minister in the president's office, including a man alleged to be the instigator of a wave of looting.

Some 10,000 soldiers had been deployed on Thursday, she said, after the Defense Ministry prepared to mobilize an additional 25,000 soldiers to help quell the unrest amid fears of a rise in vigilantism.

About 100 acts of violence had been recorded on Wednesday, but fewer than three dozen on Thursday, Ntshaveni said.

Chaos erupted across swathes of the country following the imprisonment of former president Jacob Zuma a week ago. The protests devolved into unchecked looting, arson, and violence.

Clean-up work began in many places on Thursday. Initial estimates are that the damage runs to hundreds of millions of rand, and affected around 20,000 jobs. Television images of a looted hardware store in Pietermaritzburg showed the recovery of several bodies.

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