It’s an election year for the ruling party, the African National Congress. Zuma wants a second term as party leader.
Shadrack Gutto, a political analyst says "there have been a lot of bad decisions in his term... he mustn’t take it as a given he will win."
This latest unrest started in the platinum sector last month and has now spread to the lucrative gold mines.
Al Jazeera's Haru Mutasa reports.
