argentina has surpassed 100,000 covid deaths, the fifth latin american country to do so. more and more people have gotten vaccinated. infections in the netherlands have sort 500% in a week. politicians called an emergency debate to discuss the handling of the pandemic. the prime minister has apologized for ending almost all lockdown restrictions. results president may undergo

emergency surgery. his team says he was brought there for tests on an obstructed contest. -- intestate. reporter: it was 10 days of continuous tech ups. right now he was transferred, he arrived where the best hospitals are, and where he will be treated by the same doctors who did surgery on him after he was stabbed. anchor: cuba, where the government is lifting import duties on food, as it faces unprecedented protests over the crisis.

officials have been criticized for their handling of the coronavirus pandemic. army reservists are being called in south africa after violence, triggered by the jailing of the former president. those are your headlines. inset story is next. -- inside stories next. anchor: south africa struggles to contain its work unrest in decades. thsands ha been killed. -- dozens have been killed. that has exposed issues of poverty and inequality.

how will the government tackle this crisis? this is inside story. hello and welcome to the program. in some of the worst violence south africa has seen since the end of apartheid, days of protests looting and rioting across the country. although it was sparked by the jailing of the former president, the crisis has exposed deeper issues of poverty and inequality. angry crowds have burnt down businesses and disrupted supply chains. there are fears some areas could run out of food. cap the 72 people have been killed. we will bring in our guests in just a moment, but first, this

update from johannesburg. reporter: this is a township in the north of johannesburg where we have seen significant looting over the past few days, specifically, down this road where businesses were looted. many of the buildings were set alight. the has been a significant police presence, but not enough to stop these incidents. the army has been deployed, but it is thought that soldiers on the ground has managed to harm the situation at least to some extent. we have seen business owners and community owners returning to assess the damage, also potentially clean up and try to restore some sort of calm. but really, it is too late in the government is facing a lot

of criticism for acting too late. many south africans and organizations say more should have been done early on, especially given that there were warnings immediately during and after the arrest of the former president. it is his arrest and imprisonment that sparked some of what we saw. they have now spread to another province. while it was that incident that might have sparked the riots, it has morphed into more than just the political situation and imprisonment of the former president. we are seeing looting, specifically linked to the economic situation in south africa. people here say covid-19 lockdowns have left them desperate area they have lost jobs, they can't get jobs and this is why we have seen businesses looted. people are desperate and there are concerns around increasing

challenges the government is facing. and while the deployment of soldiers and police might quell protests for now, if those challenges are not adequately addressed and resolved, south africa may continue to see similar uprisings and unrest. anchor: while the south african resident has the card the military, he has blamed the unrest on criminals and called on people to stand against violence. >> of those may be opportunistic acts of looting driven by property, the -- poor and marginalized their the ultimate front of the distraction that is currently underway. as i said, shops have been

looted and infrastructure has been destroyed. this means that i was sick can i get medication from pharmacies. food does not breach the supermarket shelves. health workers cannot go to work. anchor: let's take a listen to what some south africans had to cite. >> [indiscernible] >> the processing takes forever. he's way too slow to act. he is way too slow to act. this is not the time to process. this is the time to act. you cannot say we don't condone. we condemn, and stop there.

>> i have managed to create employment. now what is going to happen to all of those people? it is not fair. we note the rate of unemployment is very high. but when you do things like this, it becomes hard. >> we knew when we lots down again this was bound to happen. the longer you leave the civilians hungry, these events take place. people need some type of food. anchor: let's bring in our guests. in cape town, a member of the african congress. in johannesburg, the deputy

president of the economic freedom fighters party and a member of our lament. and in cape town, a professor of african studies. welcome, thank you for being with us. if i can start with you in johannesburg. what is the cause of the unrest in south africa and who is responsible? >> just to give you some background, for the longest time , [indiscernible] economic apartheid is the reality.

that is why [indiscernible] who pushed and fought against corruption and wrongdoing. the commission was established to investigate. that was based on an allegation. that is about $5 billion. when the commission was established [indiscernible] we wanted to persuade him to appear. issues are that he does not want

to appear before a judge because of a personal relationship. because they did something unusual gave him a sentence of 15 months, that sparked the protests. the nature is not unusual. the public institutions are fine, now it is malls that are being looted. anchor: we have seen that. the pictures have been quite surprising, and for people who live out of south africa, it's quite surprising and unsettling. the eff and its leader have been

accused of fueling some of the unrest and booting. what do you respond to that? >> the eff is not involved in the protests. we objected to the usage of soldiers. soldiers must only be brought in when it is external threats. not for internal matters. anchor: the police showed they could not handle the situation. they were overwhelmed. >> there has not yet been an exhausted effort and mechanism to utilize the police force. only the police that were affected. there was never deployment from other provinces.

the pressure soldiers is a declaration of war against protesters who understood [indiscernible] in the joblessness that generally defines society the capacity of the government. anchor: let's bring in our guest indicate -- in cape town what do you think is the reason for the violence? the president described it as ethnic mobilization which a lot of people criticized him for, saying he was adding fuel to the fire. what do you make of this and what you think are the root causes? >> thank you very much.

it is important to make it clear that this issue the sparked by the constitutional court's judgment against the former president. however, to characterize what is going on is protests may not necessarily be accurate. in protests, people get together . the black hats are there marching. here you have a group of individuals storming the shopping malls and other commercial areas. does not protest. these are opportunity grounds. however, it should be explained

further. we can't run away from the fact that there are problems. issues of unemployment and inequality and related issues. it is not a new phenomenon. i have been interviewed on xenophobic attacks. there is contagion. they spread fast. the issue is we have to confront inequality and joblessness. the statement in effect dealt with that. as far as the ethnicity issues, those are assessments which i

think anyone who is an analyst will say at this point, it has shown not to be accurate. anchor: i think he is right in saying we have not seen protests that we have in the past. this has not been the case this year. . what is happening right now? is it a political or economic problem? >> there are multiple dimensions to the story. there isn't necessarily one side that is correct or accurate. south africa since independence has been experiencing protests on quite a regular basis. some refer to south africa as the proudest capital in the world.

this is nothing new. what is new is the scale and scope, and more going forward. that's the crux of the battle. there are different dimensions to it. at the core they have the right analysis. social and economic inequality that can be traced far back to the legacy of apartheid and racialized exclusion. the inability of the governing body to turn around the situation. the years that were technically lost. we saw them move backwards. anchor: you talk about the

legacy to apartheid, but to what extent does the legacy play into this? the african national congress has been in power for 30 years,. and they came with those promises of addressing poverty and inequality. apartheid ended 30 years ago. >> apartheid ended in 1994 technically speaking. but you will see that special apartheid is alive and well. privatization of housing, health care. education, infrastructure access. the inability to undo the structural inequality that was put in place by apartheid rests firmly in the hands of government. society.

they also have a responsibility to push, monitor and ensure changes that are necessary to restore human dignity of the people who are now booting in the malls, the shops and warehouses. this is still a work in progress. the sense of isolation is what has led to the deprivation. this is not an excuse for criminality, but if we take a criminal militarized police approach to this issue, we fail to understand the underlying social and economic drivers and traumatic dimensions of what is causing the uprising we see at the moment. that would be an incomplete analysis and the to an incomplete prognosis.

anchor: let's have a closer look. many suffer from inequality decades after the end of inequality. the world bank says they control 70% of all resources. unemployment is at a record high and more than 46% among young people. inflation hit a 30 month five and prices are soaring. while the government has set $35 billion looted? coronavirus restrictions have worsened while south africa faces the delta variant. we know that there are underlying issues. how does the south african government address this? >> the fact of the matter is that the government has not disrupted what defined

apartheid. we are living in a new apartheid state where those that control the wealth and have access to riches continue to have the power. [indiscernible] people who are privileged because of apartheid policies, just as extensions of factories without meaningful rights. the biggest problem is there has not yet been a disruption in terms of ownership of the land, the equal distribution of the economy. and incapable and corrupt state that speaks rhetoric and is always engaging in pr exercises, they are fighting coronavirus.

none of that is happening. i think they have to clarify that protests always take different forms in south africa. every time. the government categorizes as criminals. whether it is for xenophobia, it always takes this form. it's not just protests [indiscernible] anchor: let's hear from another guest on this. pointing the finger of blame at the government and african national congress, today what a lot of people are asking is why they have not been able to fulfill the promises it made at the end of the apartheid to

address these issues of inequality. why haven't they been able to do so? >> i am not here to speak on that. i think what is important is to tell the truth. i agree to a large extent that we have poverty issues, we have wealth inequality issues, and we do need to have a situation where we have a different look and wait in which we manage our economy. we have currently been under quarantine. we have bubbles from one to five. at this point we are at level four the operations, the

factories and so forth are not fully functioning as a result. with that, you have unemployment , especially -- anchor:anchor: we have heard about the issues. what are the solutions? >> we have to look at how the economy is being managed. we can type from that. is it correct to have serious austerity and structural adjustment? is it correct? shouldn't we have the government being the top-tier investor in the stage when the private sector is sluggish? i think we should look at that.

if we're going to look at such an issue, those are the issues that are going to be looked at. importantly, that same issue has made -- [indiscernible] there is enough equipment. police do not have enough riot gear. anchor: it took a long time for the police to get the situation under control. let me get the last word to cape town. looking from the outside, south africa is a role model. it is quite unsettling to see what is happening. what do you think needs to change? we have heard from the president, his tone has not been conciliatory.

what is he going to have to say and do to calm the situation? >> the president has acknowledged the failure. this is not a bashing intervention. the point is it is a watershed moment. the social unrest is not the underlying cause, which suggests the government has to turn in size much more introspectively towards the fact that there are certain social and economic issues that remain unaddressed, when people live in squalor and others live in affluence, you are creating a situation of tension and isis. there is a lot of work in terms of dialogue. we have known them for a while,

the institute for reconciliation publishes a barometer that tells you the last 10 years there have been demands from those in lower income groups that the equality has to be addressed. that means government resources. the amounts being dedicated to military and defense needs to be allocated to social programs. in the absence of that, you won't have effective peace building and sustainable society. anchor: thank you so much for a very interesting discussion and for joining us. and thank you for watching. you can watch this program anytime by visiting our website. for further discussion you can go to our facebook page. and of course join the conversation on twitter. for me and the whole team, thank

you for watching. bye for now. ♪

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