The Institute for Security Studies has reiterated calls for officials to be held accountable for last year’s July civil unrest.
During his State of the Nation Address (SONA), President Cyril Ramaphosa announced that there would be changes to the leadership of security agencies in response to the report on the July unrest.
At least 350 deaths were recorded during the looting and violence in July last year. Damage and losses are estimated at over R50 billion.
After the violence, Ramaphosa announced the appointment of an Expert Panel which found, among others, that Cabinet must take full responsibility for the violence.
Chairperson of the ISS Board of Trustees Jakkie Cilliers, says, “He has appointed another panel to review and implement the findings that are in the panel of experts. Let’s hope that, that will lead to action. The panel was very explicit in making very practical recommendations because the structures are all there. The problem is that the politicians are not implementing them and holding people to account. Whether you are referring to the National Security Council or any of the other structures that exist, they aren’t held to account or operational. It is, I would almost say, a kind of soft management issue that the panel said lies at the heart of the problem.”
Ramaphosa vows to develop national response to address weaknesses the July Unrest report identified
President Cyril Ramaphosa has vowed to develop a national response to address all the weaknesses, that the expert panel appointed to review the country’s response to the July Unrest have identified.
This came out during his State of the Nation Address at the Cape Town City Hall on Thursday night.
Ramaphosa says they take the blame and will make necessary changes.
He says, “Earlier this week, we released the report of the expert panel into the civil unrest in July last year. The report paints a deeply disturbing picture of the capabilities of our security services and the structures that exist to coordinate their work. The report concludes that government’s initial handling of the July 2021 events was inept, police operational planning was poor, there was poor coordination between the state security and intelligence services, and police are not always embedded in the communities they serve.”
Inequality
Ramaphosa says the expert panel said that if the violence has exposed anything it was the poverty and inequality that is the root cause of the desperation of the people of South Africa
He said, “The expert panel found that Cabinet must take overall responsibility for the events of July 2021. This is a responsibility that we acknowledge and accept. We will, as recommended by the panel, develop and drive a national response plan to address the weaknesses that the panel has identified. We will begin immediately by filling critical vacancies and addressing positions affected by suspensions in the State Security Agency and Crime Intelligence.”
Ramaphosa announced that they will soon be announcing leadership changes in a number of security agencies to strengthen our security structures.
“The staffing of the public order policing unit of the South African Police Service will be brought to an appropriate level, with appropriate training courses in place. The ongoing damage to and theft of economic infrastructure has damaged confidence and severely constrained economic growth, investment and job creation. At the same time, we need to confront the criminal gangs that invade construction sites and other business places to extort money from companies. This requires a focused and coordinated response.”
President Cyril Ramaphosa’s speech:
