Johannesburg - Political parties in South Africa agree with the Expert Panel report on the July 2021 unrest which has blamed government for the unrest which swept across KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng resulting in wide scale looting, destruction of businesses and loss of life.
The report by the panel which probed the unrest and handed over to President Cyril Ramaphosa on Monday, was scathing of the ANC led government's handling of the unrest and called on the cabinet to take overall responsibility for the events of July 2021.
The panel found that there was a significant failure on the part of the intelligence service to anticipate, prevent or disrupt the planned and orchestrated violence. The report said the intelligence service’s appreciation and interpretation of what was building was too slow, resulting in its failure to put in place the necessary interventions to detect and disrupt the unrest.
Among the recommendations was that the cabinet should drive a national response plan demonstrating its own willingness to be held accountable, and to hold the public office bearers who failed in their responsibilities to account.
“It must give regular feedback on what is happening to ensure that those who planned and instigated the violence are being brought to book,” the report read.
The report also did not spare the South African Police Service (SAPS), saying that the police had failed to stop the rioting and looting .
“The reasons for this failure are complex and sometimes not of their making. In some instances, they did not get any intelligence upon which to plan operations.
“It is not clear why this was so, but one of the reasons may be that at least six members of the senior leadership of CI were suspended in the period leading up to the outbreak of the violence,” read the report.
Political parties in the country have wasted little time in reacting to the report, with EFF spokesperson Vuyani Pambo saying that South Africa’s intelligence services were not only caught by surprise by the riots, they were also largely dysfunctional.
“A key question that the country needed to know is whether the President and or the Minister of Police knew about the planned riots and did nothing to stop them,” Pambo said.
ACDP Deputy President Wayne Thring agreed that South Africa’s security forces, namely the SAPS and State Security Agency, could have done far more to end the violence and looting which went on for almost two weeks.
“We also agree that the executive is not exempted in this matter, and that they too have to take the responsibility for this.
“The July looting, which according to reports cost our country some R50 billion and caused more than 340 live casualties. This was without a doubt one of the worst security situations for South Africa since the dawn of Democracy.
“We call on our government to immediately and effectively react to this report so as to ensure that a similar incident is not found in future. We also call on our government to clearly bring South Africans and the international community into confidence that it will only become stronger from this,” Thring said.
Political Bureau