JOHANNESBURG -- Standing at the entrance to a looted mall and surrounded by soldiers, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa vowed Friday to restore order to the country after a week of violence set off by the imprisonment of former President Jacob Zuma.
Visiting the port city of Durban in hard-hit KwaZulu-Natal province, Zuma's home area, Ramaphosa said the chaos and violence in which more than 200 people died had been "planned and coordinated" and that the instigators will be prosecuted.
"We have identified a good number of them, and we will not allow anarchy and mayhem to just unfold in our country," he said.
One person has been arrested on charges of instigating the violence and 11 others are under surveillance, officials said. As army tanks rolled by the trashed Bridge City mall, Ramaphosa said the deployment of 25,000 troops would end the violence and rampant theft in KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng provinces.
South Africa's unrest broke out after Zuma began serving a 15-month sentence for contempt of court for refusing to comply with a court order to testify before a state-backed inquiry investigating allegations of corruption while he was president from 2009-18.
Protests quickly escalated into theft in township areas. In Durban, rioters attacked retail areas and industrial centers, where they emptied warehouses and set them on fire.
The burned-out shells still smoldered Friday.
More than 2,500 people have been arrested on charges of theft and vandalism and 212 people have died, Khumbudzo Ntshavheni, acting minister in the presidency, said Friday. Many were trampled to death when shops were looted, according to police.
The army rollout in KwaZulu-Natal is expected to restore order in the coastal province within a few days. An uneasy calm has been secured in Gauteng province, which includes Johannesburg, South Africa's largest city and industrial hub.
"The country is gradually but firmly returning to normal," Ntshavheni said during a daily news briefing on the crisis.
In a sign of a return to stability, two strategic highways linking Durban port to Johannesburg and Cape Town reopened Friday after being closed for a week, Ntshavheni announced.
South Africa's unrest first flared at the Mooi River toll gate for the N3 highway, where more than 20 trucks were burned. The military will patrol the highways, but drivers are warned to use the road with care.
"It is vitally important to proceed with extreme caution and to stay alert at all times," the highway authority said in a tweet Friday.
The highways are vital transport routes carrying fuel, food and other goods. Authorities will work to reopen the rail line to the strategic Indian Ocean ports of Durban and Richard's Bay that was also closed by the unrest, she said.
Information for this article was contributed by Mogomotsi Magome of The Associated Press.