SOWETO: South African President Cyril Ramaphosa joined post-riot clean-up efforts on Sunday as his government warned against vigilantism and sought to avert racial conflict following the unrest.
The country was gripped by more than a week of chaos that claimed more than 200 lives as looters ransacked shopping centres and unidentified groups torched key industrial infrastructure and blocked trade routes.
The violence was the worst in post-apartheid South Africa and erupted after former president Jacob Zuma was sentenced to 15 months in jail for snubbing a corruption inquiry.
His trial for graft in a separate case is due to resume on Monday. "We all admit there were lapses... we will gather ourselves and do a proper review," Ramaphosa told a crowd outside a mall in the Soweto township.
"People want to defend what we have in the form of democracy, our constitution and economy."
Ramaphosa is under mounting pressure as only one of the suspected masterminds of what officials have called an attempted "insurrection", which caused an estimated $1 billion of damage, has been arrested.
When asked if he would shake up his ministers responsible for security he said: "We are reviewing the situation, yes."
Access to basic necessities like food has become a pressing issue in the areas affected by looting, arson and violence as many stores were destroyed while others remain closed.
Many in the worst-hit KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) province are now going hungry.
At a branch of the Grace family church in Durban, trestle tables were piled high with donated fresh vegetables and bread to prepare food parcels for those in need of food.
Police Minister Bheki Cele has warned against "vigilante acts" after residents of Phoenix outside Durban, a township of mostly Indian-origin South Africans, were accused of victimising their black counterparts.
"If we hear that people are being racially profiled at roadblocks set up in the area... (people) including police, are being intimidated, violated and in extreme cases people are being beaten up, and their cars are searched and torched (this) is simply criminal and won't be tolerated," he said in a statement late Saturday. - AFP
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