Protests erupted in South Africa last week after former President Jacob Zuma handed himself in to police to serve a 15-month jail term for contempt of court.

The government is now preparing to deploy more troops to tackle widespread riots and looting concentrated in the densely-populated Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal provinces, with 72 people now dead and more than 1,200 arrested, according to a police statement.

Experts have suggested that while the former leader’s arrest was the trigger for civil unrest, underlying issues such as “rampant unemployment, widespread inequality and discontent with Covid-19 related restrictions are the powder keg.”