I’m torn apart by the unrest and violence that have grabbed our country by the throat and are strangling our crawling economy.

I remember vividly one reader's letter stating: "Youth unemployment is the ticking time-bomb waiting to explode into violence and anarchy against the state."

Today we’re witnessing the consequences of youth unemployment and poverty expressing themselves in the form of cries for Jacob Zuma to be released.

Now President Cyril Ramaphosa and his advisers must hatch a viable plan of addressing the aftermath of the riots. Police and soldiers' deployment in Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal won’t help to alleviate poverty nor stop the violence at all.

Perhaps Ramaphosa and the Zondo commission should have heeded the signal of anarchy before they took steps to incarcerate Zuma.

I would like to urge Ramaphosa to consider granting Zuma a presidential pardon to evade further looting and destruction of property.

If we leave the crawling problem to grow into a giant one, then tomorrow it will swallow us alive. It all started in the name of "Zuma release", now violence and anarchy we attest. I’m taken aback that looters include the young and old who unashamedly carry the spoils from the shops without fear of the police.

The future of SA hangs in the balance because of Judas Iscariots who betray their own country. It is of no use to keep reassuring the citizens that things would turn out for better while their stomachs are empty.

Poverty is like a punishment for a crime you didn’t commit. In a country well-governed, poverty is something to be ashamed of and in a country well-governed, wealth is something to be ashamed of. Poverty is the mother of crime.

Amos Tebeila, Mohlaletse, Limpopo