Jailing of JZ not to blame for violence
The SA Police Service (SAPS) and crime intelligence agencies failed in their basic mandate to detect the planning and execution of the unrest and looting that devastated parts of the country in 2021, a report released by the SA Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) said.
Commissioner Philile Ntuli said a combination of factors might have caused the police’s shortcomings. Evidence pointed to under-resourcing and lack of capacity in crime intelligence.
“There’s also been a breakdown in communication in the police between crime intelligence, the national commissioner and the minister of police. The state’s intelligence approaches to the unrest have proven to be ineffective.
“Excessive secrecy, insufficient resources and a lack of technological capabilities appear to have been a cause of a failure to protect and respond effectively to the planned unrest and contribute effectively to stabilising the situation,” Ntuli said.
The report on the findings of SAHRC hearings was released on Monday alongside a report by the Commission for the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Cultural, Religious and Linguistic Communities (CRL Rights Commission).
The reports were jointly released by the two chapter 9 institutions following a probe into the unrest, which wiped R50bn off the struggling economy and resulted in the death of more than 350 people.
President Cyril Ramaphosa described the unrest that followed the jailing of his predecessor, Jacob Zuma, as a failed insurrection. However, in its report the SAHRC said it could not find evidence linking the mayhem to Zuma’s jailing.
The Constitutional Court sentenced Zuma to 15 months’ imprisonment in 2021 for defying a court order to testify before the state capture commission. His supporters had warned that SA would descend into a civil war if he was jailed.
Zuma served two months of his sentence before being released on special remission due to overcrowding in prisons.
The violence that followed
his incarceration saw the N2 and N3 freeways blocked, and shops, warehouses, factories, pharmacies, haulage trucks and malls stripped bare and set alight.
Ntuli said the unrest was a “violent culmination of deeprooted political and social challenges that the country has been grappling with for a number of years”.
“The acts were indeed orchestrated, including the blocking of the N2 and N3, the destruction of warehouses and factories, and the bombing of ATMs,” she said, adding these events required “significant resources” to get off the ground.
The commission identified two actors involved in the unrest: the primary actors who initiated the destruction, and the secondary actors who later participated.
Ntuli said that between December 2020 and July 2021 the actors were mobilising against the security of the SA state. While the unrest was orchestrated, “the intention behind unrest remains unclear”.
At the time of the unrest, SA was in the throes of the Covid-19 pandemic, was battling a 34.4% unemployment rate, poor service delivery, violent crime and low economic growth.
Ntuli said the commission concluded that organised groups and individuals exploited these crises to usurp the rule of law.
“The timing of the July unrest coincided with the incarceration of former president Zuma. This caused an intertwining, blurring of lines [and] this intersection of events led to many concluding the two are indeed related,” Ntuli said.
“However, while the timing coincided with Zuma’s incarceration, the commission could not find evidence to link the two events.”
The report was scathing about the role played by law enforcement agencies during the mayhem, stating that the SAPS was “ill-prepared” to deal with the orchestrated attacks, and it lacked resources and training to deal with the unrest.
The agencies were also illequipped to deal with disinformation or misinformation on numerous online platforms.
“It was clear from evidence obtained ... the state did not have mechanisms to address and combat disinformation or misinformation,” Ntuli said.
It was recommended that the State Security Agency and police crime intelligence enhance intelligence gathering, and the government and private sector jointly address socioeconomic challenges.
The minister of communication & digital technologies, and the SABC must take proactive measures to educate the public about disinformation and/or misinformation.
Ramaphosa, too, needs to consider measures to curb the scourge aimed at causing harm.
“To identify online threats, hate speech, activities of organised online syndicates, the state should allocate resources to establish an expert level panel: it should comprise professionals with skills, [who can] draft directives ... identify and mitigate online threats,” the SAHRC commissioner said.
She said the unrest created a climate of fear and tension, prompting people across the racial divide to take to the streets in an effort to “protect their homes and neighbourhoods”, amid a lack of police presence.
“The SAPS failed to detect the planning and execution of the unrest, which falls within its mandate ... The state intelligence apparatus and approach to the unrest proved to be ineffective [due to] insufficient resources, a lack of technological [knowhow] and a failure to detect and respond effectively to the planned unrest.”
Ramaphosa should have taken steps to ensure national security was prioritised.
“There was a total breakdown in law and order in the affected areas for at least five full days,” Ntuli noted, stressing it was of “serious concern” that those allegedly behind the unrest had not been brought to book for the past two years.
The SAHRC, however, noted “several changes” the government had made in the security cluster after the unrest.
In his cabinet reshuffle of August 2021, Ramaphosa removed Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula as defence minister and shifted Ayanda Dlodlo from the state security ministry to the public service & administration portfolio. Mapisa-Nqakula was subsequently elected as the speaker of parliament in August 2021, while Dlodlo resigned from government in April 2022 to take up a directorship at the World Bank in the US.
CRL Rights Commission chair David Luka Mosoma said the commission noted with grave concern the unprecedented unrest that engulfed Phoenix and surrounding areas during the mayhem in July 2021.
“First we found there existed adversarial relationships between Africans and Indians. The 2021 unrest found fertile ground to spread mistrust and suspicion among communities. Racism is pervasively present in Phoenix and surrounding areas ... and has a negative impact on the lives of African people,” Mosoma said.
He said “systemic prejudice exists and continues to marginalise the African people”. Economic dominance by Indians and inequality were some of the issues raised by communities around Phoenix.
“The commission found the economy and dominance of that economy is in the hands of Indians especially when it comes to control, ownership and management of economy,” Mosoma said.
It was recommended that anyone found to be a racist must be “charged, and serve their sentence in the prejudicial community [in order] to combat racism in all its forms”.
It was recommended that African communities be uplifted economically to promote inclusivity and social cohesion.