Threats of renewed violence

THIS week, former president Jacob Zuma’s corruption trial was set to continue in the Pietermaritzburg High Court but was, once again, postponed.

In making their argument for a postponement, Zuma’s legal team told Judge Piet Koen that the July 2021 unrest was “partly motivated or sparked, to whatever extent, by a sense of public outrage at perceived injustice and special treatment of Mr Zuma”.

Put differently, Zuma’s legal team seemed to suggest that if the courts did not give Zuma what he wanted, there was the possibility of renewed violence.

We know now that what happened in July was no spontaneous uprising. It was planned. In fact, in the words of President Cyril Ramaphosa, it was “an attempted insurrection that failed to gain popular support”.

We also know that it cost two million jobs and cost our economy about R50billion. The long-term effects on our province and our country, in terms of a loss of confidence and investment, is yet to be calculated.

It is therefore disconcerting that anyone would threaten violence on that level, let alone a former head of state.