CAPE TOWN (Reuters) - South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has authorised the deployment of 25,000 members of the armed forces, the parliament said on Friday, in efforts to quell mass looting that has caused widespread destruction of public property.

       Citing correspondence from Ramaphosa, the parliament's presiding officers said in a statement that the deployment would be effective from July 12 to Aug. 12 and would cost over 615 million rand ($43 million).

       The looting and violence have started to ebb since Thursday.

       ($1 = 14.4045 rand)

       (Reporting by Wendell Roelf; Editing by Promit Mukherjee and Gareth Jones)