South Africa’s transport minister has denied that the recent week-long unrest was a result of failures of the government to address economic challenges.

Speaking to the BBC’s Hardtalk, Fikile Mbalula instead blamed an attempted insurrection.

More than 200 people died and thousands have been arrested for theft and public violence after hundreds of shopping centres and businesses were ransacked.

The protests followed the jailing of former President Jacob Zuma on contempt charges.

It is South Africa’s deepest political crisis since apartheid.

While Mr Mbalula acknowledged that the security forces were slow to quell the violence, he said that the unrest was a well-orchestrated attempted coup. He blamed – without evidence – former liberation war comrades.

Analysts say the protests were a result of the ever-widening gap between rich and the poor, and pent up frustration at high unemployment and policy failures.

Mr Mbalula denied that the government has failed, adding that the governing African National Congress (ANC) had had just 27 years to erase the effects of 300 years of colonial oppression.