- Since the protests in Mangaung in the Free State erupted on Sunday, 70 people have been arrested.
- According to police, foreign owned shops and incidents of public violence have been reported.
- News24 also reported that a teenager was killed.
Seventy people have been arrested so far in connection with the protests in the Free State that saw the looting of shops and the death of a teenager.
The protests, which started on Sunday evening in an apparent attempt to shutdown Mangaung, resulted in dozens of incidents of alleged public violence, theft, vehicle hijackings and business robberies.
According to police, many of the looted shops, some of which were also severely damaged in the past 24 hours, were foreign-owned.
"The police deployed in Mangaung to manage disruptive actions made additional arrests in the past 24 hours," said police spokesperson Brigadier Motantsi Makhele.
"The total number of people who were arrested since the shutdown protests started on Sunday evening stands at 70, and we anticipate more arrests as there are shop owners still coming to report additional cases."
Makhele added that there were flare-up protests in other parts of the Free State, including Soutpan, Dewetsdorp and Zastron.
"In [the] Zastron protests, about 20 people were arrested... for public violence and looting which took place at foreign nationals' shops as well."
By Wednesday morning, all affected areas were quiet, with police monitoring the situation, Makhele said.
Meanwhile, the 57-year-old suspect arrested for allegedly murdering a 15-year-old boy on Monday was expected to appear in the Bloemfontein Magistrate's Court on Wednesday.
The group of protesters arrested on Sunday and Monday would also be appearing in the same court on Wednesday.
"Once more, we are appealing to those criminal elements who are continuing to loot the shops and barricade the roads to stop this as we now consider their conduct as pure criminality," Makhele said.
News24 previously reported that the shutdown was centred around issues of service delivery.
On Tuesday evening, the Mangaung Community Concern (MCC) leadership and Premier Sefora Ntombela reached an agreement, which was said to have led to the suspension of the protest action.
The MCC had labelled the Mangaung municipality as dysfunctional and raised concerns that it failed to keep its promise to decrease the unemployment rate in the area. It said the municipality had failed to serve the community.
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