“Since the unrest, a total of 234 deaths as related to the unrest were reported in KwaZuluNatal to date,” a minister in the president’s office, Khumbudzo Ntshavheni, said in a statement, adding that another 42 deaths were recorded in Gauteng province which includes Johannesburg.
Police are investigating 168 of the deaths for murder. Some of the people died in stampedes or were crushed by falling objects, while others died in burning buildings.
The minister said “stability” had returned to the two provinces rocked by unprecedented violence in postapartheid South and that police were carrying out “moppingup operations to ensure opportunistic and copycat activities do not find traction”.
Rioting broke out a day after expresident Jacob Zuma started serving a 15month jail term for ignoring a corruption inquiry.
It spread through Zuma’s KwaZuluNatal and Gauteng, South Africa’s most populous provinces accounting for half of the country’s GDP.
The violence has abated, and six people, including a DJ, have so far been arrested on charges of incitement to commit public violence.
Several thousand more are being held for looting.