Ramaphosa targets Zulus, plays the apartheid tribal card

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has attributed some on the forces behind the recent violent protests to ethnic mobilisation.

Although the son of a Venda apartheid policeman offered no evidence to back up this statement, he told the nation during Sunday night's address that this must be condemned by all citizens.

While the sporadic incidents of anarchy are understood to be pushing for former President Jacob Zuma's release from prison, no uniform pattern suggesting this has been identified.

It's what commentators and social scientists have been weary of since throngs of people gathered outside Zuma's Nkandla home in the name of shielding him from the police.

But suggestions that Zulu nationalism is behind what appears to be Zuma's support base did not always stick. On Sunday night, the president was direct about it.

"It is a matter of concern to all South Africans that some of these acts of violence are based on ethnic mobilisation. This must be condemned by all South Africans at all costs as we are a nation committed to non-racialism and non-tribalism that is underpinned by the diversity and unity of all the people of South Africa, whatever their language, culture, religious beliefs and race," said Ramaphosa.

The president stressed that the vast majority of the country's citizens have shown that they want to live in peace and harmony.