At least 72 people have died in the violence that has been engulfing parts of South Africa since the jailing of former President Jacob Zuma last week.
Fires have been set, highways blocked and businesses looted in major cities and small towns in KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng provinces. Photo: AFP
This includes 10 people killed in a stampede during looting on Monday night at a shopping centre in Soweto, the country's biggest township.
The BBC filmed a baby being thrown from a building in Durban that was on fire after ground-floor shops were looted.
The military has now been deployed to help the police overstretched since the unrest began last week.
South African police said in a statement that they had identified 12 people suspected of provoking the riots, and that a total of 1234 people had been arrested.
The military has now been deployed to help the overstretched police.
President Cyril Ramaphosa has called it some of the worst violence witnessed in South Africa since the 1990s, before the end of apartheid, with fires set, highways blocked and businesses looted in major cities and small towns in KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng provinces.
Police Minister Bheki Cele told journalists on Tuesday that, if the looting continued, there was a risk areas could run out of basic food supplies.
However, Defence Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula said there was not yet a need to declare a state of emergency over the violence.
How bad is the damage?
More than 200 shopping malls had been looted by Monday afternoon, Bloomberg news agency quoted the chief executive officer of Business Leadership South Africa, Busisiwe Mavuso, as saying.
The BBC's Vumani Mkhize says several shopping centres in the township - once home to Nelson Mandela - have been completely ransacked with ATMs broken into, restaurants, bottle stores and clothing shops all left in tatters.
Soldiers, working with the police managed to catch a few rioters, in total almost 800 have been arrested, but law enforcement remains heavily outnumbered, he says.
In KwaZulu-Natal - where livestock has also been stolen - the unrest continues with ambulances even coming under attack by rioters in some areas, South Africa's TimesLive news site reports.
Officials have accused some groups of taking advantage of the anger over Zuma's imprisonment to commit criminal acts, while others have said anger over unemployment and poverty are fuelling the chaos.
But Cele warned that "no amount of unhappiness or personal circumstances from our people gives the right to anyone to loot, vandalise and do as they please and break the law".
He also revealed they were investigating 12 people for inciting violence.
A looter runs from a member of the South African Police Services (SAPS) inside the Lotsoho Mall in Katlehong township, East of Johannesburg, on 12 July. Photo: AFP
There has been some concern over fake news online fuelling the unrest, while the governing African National Congress (ANC) had already revealed it was looking into tweets sent by Zuma's daughter, Duduzile Zuma-Sambudla.
State Security Minister Ayanda Dlodlo said officials were "busy sorting fact from fiction" after receiving information that former security agents linked to Zuma had instigated the violence.
Zuma was convicted of contempt of court last month after failing to attend an inquiry into corruption during his presidency.
The 79-year-old, who denies corruption, was given a 15-month prison sentence. He handed himself to police late on Wednesday.
He is hoping to get the sentence rescinded or reduced by the country's constitutional Court. However, legal experts say his chances of success are slim.
- BBC