The National Police Commissioner Fannie Masemola is on Friday morning expected to visit Gauteng police stations to assess the state of readiness ahead of the Economic Freedom Fighters’ (EFF) planned national shutdown on Monday.
The EFF, supported by organisations such as the Pan-Africanist Congress of Azania (PAC) and labour federation South African Federation of Trade Unions (Saftu), will hold protests against Eskom’s rolling blackouts and demand President Cyril Ramaphosa’s resignation.
The national police spokesperson Athlenda Mathe says, “The Provincial Police Commissioner Lieutenant-General Elias Mawela will form part of the visit to operations which will commence with an address to a multidisciplinary parade.”
Below is the full interview with Mathe on SAFM’s First Take:
On Thursday, Defence Minister Thandi Modise said members of the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) will be on standby in case of any eventuality during the national shutdown.
She says the country’s security cluster has been lenient for a long time and that is being mistaken for weakness.
Modise says the country will not allow any form of anarchy and violence during the protest.
“If there is any weakness in the security cluster, is that for a long time, we have allowed people to use social media to plan [and] to intimidate and [we] have not followed up. We want to assure you that this time, we will not let it go.”
“That is the weakness that we will [not] accept, that is the weakness we are in the process of remedying. There was a question of whether or not SANDF will be deployed, we are in [on] standby,” adds Modise.
VIDEO | President Ramaphosa warns Monday protesters that no violence will be tolerated
