Minister of Justice and Correctional Services, Ronald Lamola has told the Human Rights Commission (HRC) that his department had to beef up its prosecution teams to deal with the massive amount of cases of the July 2021 unrest.
Lamola is testifying in the Commission’s hearings of the Gauteng leg into the July unrest in Sandton, north of Johannesburg, on Thursday.
The Commission is probing the impact of the July 2021 unrest that claimed about 350 lives and caused over 50 billion rand in damages to infrastructure and businesses in KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng.
The Minister says retired prosecutors were amongst those called to assist with the cases.
“So we had to issue directive that were unique relevant to this matter in terms of processing of the matters and the establishment of that joint task team that was going to process all these matters that came from the July unrest. The issue of also looking at requesting retired prosecutors and presiding prosecuting officers. To come and help us with the work that was coming,” says Lamola.
HRC Hearings on the 2021 July unrest continue: 3 March 2022
Police Minister Bheki Cele was the first to appear before the Commission which is probing the impact and events of the July 2021 unrest that claimed about 350 lives and caused over R50 billion in damages to infrastructure and businesses in KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng.
SABC Digital News takes a look at how the riots unfolded:
