Tight security at summit
SECURITY agencies are leaving nothing to chance in ensuring the safety of the ANC’s much-anticipated national elective conference after the jailing of two white supremacists for plotting to kill party leaders in 2012.
Johannesburg metro police spokesperson Wayne Minnaar said they would work jointly with their counterparts in Ekurhuleni and Tshwane as well as police to ensure safety of leaders, delegates and other guests.
“Hundreds of officers will be deployed,” he said.
There were also fears of “rowdy elements” who might want to collapse conference.
At the ANC’s last conference in Mangaung five years ago, four men were arrested for plotting to kill President Jacob Zuma and other senior leaders during the gathering in order to spark the Boerevolk, right-wing Afrikaners seeking an independent homeland, into action.
Johan Prinsloo was sentenced to eight years for high treason and possession of ammunition along with his co-accused Mark Trollip, who pleaded guilty to conspiracy.
They were members of the Federal Freedom Party, which is demanding a separate state for Afrikaners.
Another man arrested for the plot, Martin Keevy, was declared mentally unfit to stand trial and charges against him were withdrawn while charges against the fourth suspect Hein Boonzaaier, the party’s leader at the time, were dropped due to insufficient evidence.
State Security Agency spokesperson Brian Dube said the national joint operational and intelligence structure (NATjoints) was co-ordinating security as the conference was a national event. He referred further enquiries to the police, whose spokesperson Brigadier Vishnu Naidoo said because the conference was a major event security would obviously be tight.
Naidoo declined to reveal details of the NATjoints operations for the conference.
Gareth Newham, head of the Institute for Security Studies’ governance, crime and justice division, said in the 2012 incident intelligence services were well aware of the plot, arrested the individuals and the network involved.
“I would imagine that the amount of security that has been established and set up around the conference and particularly the leaders, both the president and those contesting positions there will be resources allocated to it,” Newham said.
He said security agencies were doing daily threat analyses and should they pick up anything they will be able to neutralise any threat.
“I think the security around the conference will be incredibly tight, I think they have been planning it for some time already now. It’s not likely that you will see something like that (2012 plot) happening. I would be very surprised if something would happen,” Newham said.
According to Newham, there was always a risk of a lone wolf, where an individual who has not planned acts with others acted alone but this was highly unlikely.
Newham said everybody would want the conference to go off smoothly without problems so that there is finality to the leadership situation in the ANC.
“They are the governing party so what happens there will have a big influence on government and the rest of the country, if it goes off smoothly it will not only be in the interest of the ANC but in the interest of the country,” he said.