Unnamed Masterminds

◆ The ringleaders of the violence have remained faceless to the public.

◆ No organised movement came forward to claim responsibility for the acts of violence or to justify the violence in the name of a cause.

◆ Claims by General Bheki Cele, the Police Minister, that they had identified 12 instigators who would be brought to book, resulted in disappointment when only a handful of individuals were identified based on their social media accounts.

◆ If it is true that there was a mastermind behind the violence, his or her actions may be seen as terrorist activity as they breach the Protection of Constitutional Democracy against Terrorist and Related Activities Act, 2004.

◆ The act defines terrorist activity as actions that cause major economic loss or extensive destabilisation of an economic system or devastation of the national economy of a country. It includes actions by an individual that create a serious public emergency situation or a general insurrection.