More than 30 vehicles were damaged and torched, many businesses were looted, local media outlets reported.

The demonstrations had mainly been concentrated in KwaZulu-Natal, the home province of former President Jacob Zuma, who handed himself over to the police on Wednesday and was jailed at the Estcourt Correctional Centre.

Zuma was sentenced to 15 months in jail on June 29, for contempt of court, after he refused to appear at a government-appointed commission investigating alleged corruption during his nine years in office.