ATC210818: Report of the Portfolio Committee on Police on the oversight visit to Kwa- Zulu-Natal and Gauteng Province to assess the impact of violent protests in the respective provinces 19 -21 July 2021, dated 17 August 2021

Police

Report of the Portfolio Committee on Police on the oversight visit to Kwa- Zulu-Natal and Gauteng Province to assess the impact of violent protests in the respective provinces 19 -21 July 2021, dated 17 August 2021

 

 

1.Introduction

 

Following the incarceration of former President Jacob Zuma on 7 July 2021, parts of South Africa embarked on larger scale violent protests and riots leading to the destruction of state and privately owned property. The protester looted shopping malls, factories predominantly located in and around major cities in the KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng provinces.

2.Background

 

The President Ramaphosa authorised the deployment of 2 500 soldiers from the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) to assist the SAPS in quelling the unrest. The Minister of Defence and Military Veterans, announced to Parliament on 14 July 2021 that the deployment will be increased to 25 000 troops under the code name Operation Prosper. The Portfolio Committee on Police and the Joint Standing Committee on Defence deemed it necessary to engage with the top leadership of the SANDF and the SAPS on the deployment strategy in affected areas and to further conduct oversight visits in selected hotspot areas where violence and looting took place.

3.Composition of the Delegation

 

The Committee was comprised of the following members and support staff; Hon T. Joemat-Pettersson (ANC)(Chair)

Hon M. Shaik-Emam (NFP) Hon. O. Terblanche (DA) Hon. N. Peacock (ANC) Hon. P.Groenewald (FF+) Hon. H. Shembeni (EFF) Hon. K. Meshoe (ACDP)

 

 

Hon. Z. Majozi (IFP)

 

Mr M Dodo (Committee Assistance) Adv P Gwebu (Committee Secretary) Joint Standing Committee on Defence African National Congress

Mr ME Nchabeleng (Co-chairperson – NCOP) Mr VC Xaba (Co-chairperson – NA)

Ms TI Legwase Mr TN Mmutle Ms M Modise Ms AH Mthembu Ms NE Nkosi

Democratic Alliance

 

Mr SJF Marais Mr D Ryder

Mr ML Shelembe

 

Economic Freedom Fighters

 

Mr TWI Mafanya Mr K Motsamai

Inkatha Freedom Party Mr R Cebekhulu Support Staff

Dr W Janse van Rensburg - Committee Researcher Mr G Mankay  -                                      Committee Assistant

 

 

 

 

 

4.DAY ONE

 

The Committees received a joint briefing from the SANDF and the SAPS on the situation in the province and the law enforcement responses in bringing calm to what had escalated into violent protests in the province. The Committee undertook to spend the entire day one engaging the Minister of Police and his senior management on the events that led to police failure to deploy adequately despite allegedly having received an intelligence report warning of violent protests if former President Jacob Zuma was to be incarcerated. Members had lots of questions to the Minister and wanted their unanswered questions answered. This delayed the delegation and as a result, the scheduled oversight visits to identified hotspot areas did not take place.

5.Briefing by the SANDF

 

The briefing by the SANDF gave an overview of Operation Prosper, the deployment of SANDF members to support the work of the SAPS in bringing stability in those parts of KZN that experienced incidents of violent protests and looting of businesses. The operational deployment was joint in nature, whereby all components were selectively deployed in support of SAPS to protect, among others, National Key points to ensure that they are prevented from being vandalised, destroyed or being sabotaged by providing escort and domination of routes opening of routes to give free passage of delivery vehicles and cargo carriers along N2 and N3 main supply routes.

The duration of the military deployment in hotspots areas was expected to last for from 12 July until 12 October, wherein hopefully the situation would be back to normal. The main activities of units deployed in the province include the following;

• Safeguarding of national key points, visibility patrols, roadblocks in areas such as Mtubatuba Town, Empangeni and Eshowe
• Safeguarding of national key points, visibility patrols VCPs/roadblocks at Ladysmith CBD warehouse
• Safeguarding     of    national     key    points,    visibility      patrols    VCPs/roadblocks     at Pietermaritzburg CBD, Pine Town CDB, Woodburn and Hayfield
• Safeguarding     of    national     key    points,    visibility      patrols    VCPs/Roadblocks     at Pietermaritzburg Makro and Alexandra area

 

 

• Safeguarding of national key points at KSR, AFB Durban, SAB Isiphingo and Safal Steel Cato ridge and standby
• Safeguarding of national key points, visibility patrols VCPs/roadblocks at Harding, Ezingolweni and Port Edward
• Safeguarding of national key points, visibility patrols VCPs/roadblocks at Greytown
• Safeguarding of national key points, visibility patrols VCPs/roadblocks at Strandby
• secure the National Key Points Natcos, Acacia, Umgeni, Ntwini, Engen refinery, SABC, SARB, KSIA, Umgeni water and Ethekwini Metro
• Safeguarding of national key points, visibility patrols VCPs/roadblocks at N3, M7, Pinetown and Isiphingo Hospital
• Safeguarding of national key points, visibility patrols VCPs/roadblocks at King Shaka International Airport
• Safeguarding of the Durban habour and the Richards Bay habour
• Safeguarding of the national key point at Westville.

 

In addition, the SANDF reported that it had deployed troops to secure and protect courts around Durban and Pietermaritzburg, securing the residence of Deputy Chief Justice, ensuring the clearing and opening of N2 and N3 national roads and removal of some other barricades in the key parts of the province.

6.Briefing by the South African Police Service (SAPS)

 

The briefing was to appraise the Joint Committees on Police and Defence of the unrest situation and the law enforcement’s approach to stabilize the unrest situation in the Province from the 1st to 19th of July 2021. The briefing highlighted the events starting with when former President of the Republic, Mr Jacob Zuma, was scheduled to give evidence before the Commission of Enquiry into state Capture, his demand for the recusal of the Chairperson of the Commission, the Constitutional Court order for him to submit himself to the Commission which ultimately led to his conviction and incarceration for contempt of court. The Minister of Police and the National Commissioner were ordered by the court to ensure that Mr Zuma is arrested and incarcerated if he failed to hand himself to the prison authorities within five calendar days.

Events before incarceration

 

 

The Provincial Operational Command Centre had deployed the Tactical Response Team, The National Intervention Unit, Public Order Policing, and Visible Policing members to the area since the 1st of July 2021. Road blocks were conducted at Nkandla and surrounding areas following increased mobilisation for protests in support of the former president. Mr Zuma submitted an urgent application to the High Court of Pietermaritzburg to stay the execution of his arrest pending his rescission application to the Constitutional Court. On the 4th of July 2021, he failed to hand himself over as directed by the Constitutional Court. On Monday the 5th of July the High Court of Pietermaritzburg heard the application to stay the execution of his arrest. The matter was remanded to the 9th of July. Just before midnight on Wednesday the 7th of July 2021, Mr Zuma was incarcerated to serve his 15 months’ imprisonment.

Events after incarceration of former President Zuma

 

Following Mr Zuma’s incarceration, multiple protests ensued across the KZN province. Road blockades and disruptions took place in eThekwini, uMgungundlovu, Midlands, Inkosi Langalibalele, iLembe districts. Following the dismissal of Mr Zuma’s court application for the stay of execution, there was a call for a national shutdown, mainly orchestrated through the use of social media. The protests took the form of, among other things;

• Petrol bombings of malls, shops, warehouses etc
• Discharging of firearms
• Torching of trucks
• Blockading of areas
• Threats made to Economic key points/interests in the Province: Port of Durban, Port of
• Richards Bay, King Shaka International Airport, SABC offices, Water and Electricity
• Infrastructure, Fuel Depots.
• Stand-off between Community Forums and protestors which led to tensions in communities and incidents of vigilantism
• Mass looting and destroying of malls, warehouses, factories and shopping centres

 

The Police further reported that a container containing ammunitions for various calibre of handguns which was stored at Leicester Road, Mobeni was looted. The container was destined for a client in Pretoria and the matter is being investigated by the DPCI. Efforts are underway to identify the instigators of the violence with a view of prosecuting them.

 

 

Racial Tensions

 

Certain areas of the province have since witnessed incidents of racial tensions after certain communities in townships such as Phoenix and Verulam started mobilising against people of African descent. This led to incidents of shootings and burning of vehicles. A dedicated team of investigators has been assembled to investigate the crimes committed and more deployments of the Police and the Military have been dispatched to maintain order in the affected areas. A total of 138 dockets of murder were reported during the unrest period, with 2466 cases opened.

Modus Operandi of Rioters

 

The violent protests begun by the targeting of national highways and toll-roads, which then escalated into the looting and targeting of trucks, malls, warehouses and shops owned by foreign nationals. The rioters used petrol bombs, firearms, tipper trucks to blockade roads and even torched trucks and buildings. Damage to property included malls, shopping centres, banks, ATMs, liquor outlets and distributors, schools, warehouses etc.

Plan of Action

 

The Police reported several measures to restore peace and stability in affected areas. The measures include coordination mechanism at the National Joint Operational and Intelligence Structure, which filters down to Provincial Joint Operational Centre. The deployment included VISPOL, Public Order Policing, Operational Response Service, Detectives, Crime Intelligence, Reservists, SANDF and Metro Police. The joint operations have taken the form of road blocks, vehicle checkpoints, searches of premises and individuals and patrols on national roads. Of the total 2466 cases reported, 2051 arrests were made. Processes are currently ongoing to recover some of the looted goods, including items such as alcohol, firearms, motor vehicles, ammunition, building material, clothing, cigarettes, copper, electronics and audio visual devices and other dangerous weapons.

 

 

Detection of Cases

 

All districts in the province now have a dedicated task teams to investigate all cases related to the unrest. The monitoring of all dockets is done by the Deputy Provincial Commissioner: Crime Detection and Detective Provincial Heads. All high profile cases are centralised and investigated by the DPCI, with continuous implementation of prosecutor guided investigations.

 

 

Additional support to the investigating teams include the use of technology to enhance intelligence gatherings, providing accurate and timeous information to operational teams and ensure implementation, monitoring of social networks in order to identify instigators. There is a need to improve on the involvement of the community in the fight against crime as well as enhancing the SAPS physical, human and financial resources.

 

 

7.Committee Deliberations

 

The Committee welcomed the two presentations from the SANDF and the SAPS. Regarding the deployment of the military, the committee asked for the actual number of SANDF deployments on the ground. It was important to stress the emphasis that the military are there to support the work of the Police and not the other way round. Clarity was also sought on the nature of dangerous weapons that were looted from a container in eMobeni and whether such weapons caused a threat to national security.

The Committee further probed the nature of SANDF deployment and the cooperation with SAPS as the terms of reference were clear that SANDF will be deployed to support the SAPS, including the exact numbers of SANDF boots on the ground. The leadership of the SANDF confirmed to the Committee that it had a very good coordination and cooperation with the SAPS and all operations were running smoothly. The total deployment of SANDF members was slowly building towards a total of 5000 troops. More members were due to be deployed following the commitment to deploy 25 000 soldiers across the two affected provinces.

The Committee further reflected on the situation sparked by racial tensions in Phoenix and surrounding areas where it was reported that people were killed in incidents of vigilantism and racism. Members pleaded with government to do more to assist families that had their loved ones missing or murdered. It was also critical that justice be done, with perpetrators of the kind of heinous crimes prosecuted.

The Committee observed that the entire security cluster was caught unprepared to deal with the situation that presented. Even more disturbing was the information that suggested the police ran out of supplies to deal with the protests. Such incidents lead to the communities losing faith in the ability of the police to protect them, which ultimately lead to communities mobilising in an effort to protect themselves. The laws of the republic allow citizens to work with the police in the fight against crime but not acts of vigilantism.

 

 

The Minister of Police assured the Committee that he had spent a few days visiting the affected areas in an effort to calm the situation. He commended the Police for not resorting to the uses of deadly force in dealing with the protesters. Task Teams from community leaders had been created to assist the police in the investigations and getting to the root cause of the problems amongst communities. The Minister warned that the issue needed to be handled with care as the situation remained volatile. The premier of the province had committed to providing more resources so that a thorough and complete investigation can take place, including investigating the role and actions of private security companies in dealing with protesters.

The Committee welcomed the commitment and interventions by the Minister, urging that it was important for investigations to be speedily concluded and corrective measures taken to avoid a repeat. There were glaring lapses of the intelligence community according to the Committee as reports suggested that the State Security did provide the Police Minister a dossier that violent protests were going to erupt. The Police Minister denied receiving such intelligence from the State Security Minister, stressing that despite being overwhelmed by the situation, the police did their best to repel the violent protesters.

There were concerns raised regarding the deployment of Public Order Policing units to hotspot areas as very few were visible on the ground where looting was taking place. The Police responded by saying they were severely stretched and simply did not have the numbers to deal with the protesters. The leadership of the POPs in the province responded with a detailed report on the deployment in the province, which painted a picture of heavily under-resourced unit that was stretched to the limit by protests.

There were even more worrying reports that some law enforcement officials took part in the looting. The IPID was urged to investigate all allegations of looting by law enforcement officers. A total of 10 law enforcement officials had since been charged for allegedly taking part in the looting. The SAPS was urged to strengthen its vetting capacity to ensure that corrupt officers are removed from the service. Regarding those arrested, the Committee remained concerned whether there is capacity from government to process the people that were arrested. This was in light of reports that the Department of Justice and Correctional Services does not have the capacity to process the suspects.

The Committee asked SAPS management to give an assurance whether it had a plan to contain the protests from escalating into rural communities. Failure to have necessary measures could lead to a situation where people again end up mobilising to protect what is theirs. The SAPS

 

 

management assured the Committee that the situation was firmly under control and that operations were ongoing to arrest the situation and recover stolen goods where possible.

The Committee promised to look into the issue of budget, which featured strongly in the Police Minister’s remarks when he informed the Committee of severe budget cuts to the total of R11 billion and how this was affecting the overall performance of the department. In addition to members leaving the service on yearly basis, the SAPS had been unable to train 7000 new recruits in two consecutive years due to the COVID-19 pandemic and budgetary constraints.

 

 

7.1        Length of Minister and Departmental briefing

 

Committee members insisted on asking questions to the Minister of Police and the senior management of the South African Police Service. This led to the extension of the meeting that lasted over 5 hours and in essence prevented the Committee from proceeding to the planned sites for the visit. Most of the Committee members left the venue and departed to the airport except the Chairperson.

 

 

8.DAY TWO

 

The Committee took a decision to reserve the entire day two on visiting affected areas of violent protests in Gauteng Province. Three areas were visited in the SOWETO township. They were the Jabulani Mall, Protea Glen Mall and the Maponya Mall. The Committee conducted its business by receiving an overview of the events from the relevant Station Commander of the area, followed by an account by the Community Policing Forum, the IPID and the CSPS. This was followed by a walkabout of the area to afford the Committee an opportunity to assess the damage caused.

 

 

9.Jabulani Mall Site Visit

 

The Station Commander who briefed the Committee was Brigadier Lebeko. She began by giving a profile of the Police Station, an outlook of the damaged infrastructure on the day when violent protests broke out on 12 July 2021. The looters targeted Jabulani CBD, Tsele Shopping complex sector four in Moletsane, Jabulani mall sector four at Jabulani CBD, Shell filling station at sector four Jabulani CBD, ENGEN filling (petrol) station at sector four Moletsane,

 

 

ENGEN filling (petrol) station at Zola North sector one, Shoprite supermarket and Shoprite Liquor at Zola One sector four as well as Shakara complex.

The Station received information on 11 July 2021 that there might be possible looting at the Jabulani mall and began making preparation to deploy VISPOL members accordingly. The Station did not anticipate the volumes of people who came to attack the malls. Some hijacked trucks to break through the perimeter fence that protected the mall and Police were simply overwhelmed by the situation despite trying their best to protect the mall. The Station ran out of ammunition to control the crowd that was coming in large numbers. Some ammunition was received from neighbouring stations (Lenasia South, Ennerdale and Johannesburg Central) and the members went back into the mall to try and push the people out of the mall but were outnumbered as the crowd was throwing stones at the SAPS members. The mall was surrounded at every corner by the crowd who were running out with the looted items and vandalising ATMs. Support from private security was present but did not help the situation as numbers of looters continued to grow. There was a general lack of sufficient personnel to effectively deal with the situation, which was coupled by a lack of support from the neighbouring stations that were dealing with similar incidents. POPs deployments were also thin as most of them had been deployed at the Constitutional Court for the former President’s case. All these challenges were met with huge shortage of ammunition.

Arrests were effected as the SAPS members were trying to recover the goods from the crowd, JMPD arrived to assist in limited numbers. After a while two more vehicles from JMPD also arrived to assist. Members from JMPD were not in possession of firearms and the station issued them with shotguns to assist in removing looters from the mall. Public Order Policing members arrived at approximately 17:00 to assist the small group which came earlier. SANDF members also came to assist resulting in the crowd dispersing. All goods recovered were booked at Jabulani SAPS 13 stores. Although the Station attempted to arranged for re-enforcements earlier all the areas were dealing with the same problem and POPs members were also deployed elsewhere. The SAPS continues to receive information from the community on items which were looted and arrests were made, with suspects already appearing at Protea Court. Bail has been denied in most cases and suspects are remanded in custody at Johannesburg Prison. The IPID said it had received several reports from the Station regarding the discharge of ammunition and all its investigations had exonerated the police after they were found to have acted within the law. The Community Policing Forum members and the CSPS said they had a

 

 

very good working relationship with the Station and did everything to support the work of the Police in dealing with the protests.

10.Protea Glen Mall

 

The Committee was briefed by the Station Commander Colonel MI Maote. She outlined the composition of the deployment at the Protea Police Station, which consist of four sectors. There are two main shopping malls and six shopping complexes. All the Malls and shopping complexes were looted during the unrests that erupted. A total of 70 shops were looted at the Protea Gardens Mall, while 82 shops were looted at Protea Glen Mall. The looted businesses ranged from ATMs, grocery shops, butcheries and retail supermarkets. There were 73 individuals who were arrested in connection with the looting, while two individuals suffered fatal injuries. Police officers on duty also suffered injuries ranging from head injuries to chest and leg injuries. Damages to the national key points were kept at minimum, with only two post offices at the two malls suffering damages. Two cases of possession of stolen property were opened against police officers. Failure to deploy accordingly was cited as the main cause for the damages suffered at the affected areas. The Police Station was under resourced to deal with the situations, including the failure to deploy members of the Public Order Policing units.

The Community Policing Forum representatives reported that they have a good working relationship with the station and that it was their wish to see the station upgraded to a brigadier station in order to be deployed more resources to deal with similar situations in future. Efforts to mobilize communities to come in numbers to assist the Police did not yield positive outcomes as the rioters completely overwhelmed both the Police and the private security units that were deployed. It was estimated that the impact will be huge on job losses and interruption on service delivery including food and medical supplies. The situation was however returning to calm as Police continued to make more arrests with information coming from community members.

 

 

11.Maponya Mall

 

The mall is under the jurisdiction of Kliptown Police Station. It is the only mall where the looting was kept at bare minimum due to the combined efforts from the Community, CPF, SANDF and the Police. Threats were identified earlier and Police deployment as well as Community mobilization happened on time before crowds started gathering. Attempts were

 

 

made to break in to the Mall after shop owners were urged to close but more deployments of the POPs provided critical reinforcements. Critical to the success in protecting the Mall was the collective effort and cooperation between the police, private security and the community in holding the line. A total of 51 incidents were reported, with 45 arrests made. Confiscations and recoveries of looted property is ongoing following cooperation from members of the community who are providing information to law enforcement about those who took part in the looting.

The main reason that led to the Mall surviving total looting and vandalism could be attributed to, among other things;

• The presence of the Mall security who assisted and protected the mall.

 

• The Community who assisted and who protected the mall.

 

• The Community Police Forum who engaged with the community and discouraged their actions.
• Visible policing who received information concerning possible looting and took countermeasures beforehand.
• Daily support from the District office, Provincial office as well as Head Office personnel to supplement the station resources.
• Daily support from the SANDF and the Metro Police.

 

• Daily coordination of all operations which was led by senior Management from station.

 

 

12.Observations and Recommendations

 

• The Committee recommends that proper planning be done prior to all future oversight visits to prevent a situation where there is insufficient time for meeting communities or visiting sites.
• Intelligence structures should have anticipated the unrest that happened and measures should have been taken to pre-empt and avoid what happened.
• POPs needs to be capacitated with as it became clear that they were not up to the task when violent protests started.

 

 

• Relations between police and communities needs to improve as the lack of trust in the Police by the communities gave rise to community mobilization which ended up sparking racial tensions in some parts of KZN.
• Other departments such as Social Development have a role to play in bringing about social cohesion amongst communities in KZN.
• Issues of budget and improving working conditions, investment in the use of technology in fighting crime should be done without further delays.
• Police stations must be empowered with more resources to respond to protests as failure by the police may lead to communities resorting to vigilantism
• The Committee further notes the efforts of the police officers who did all they could under difficult situation.
• The IPID should speed up the investigation of private security companies that broke the law through actions that exceeded their mandate. The Committee will request a comprehensive report once investigations are completed.
• Recruitment of new officers not taking place for two financial years, coupled by high turnover rate is a serious problem that needs to be attended to as soon as possible.
• The police-population ration is not practical for effective policing. Engagement with the National Treasury must be a priority to ensuring that adequate resources are provided.
• The SAPS has a lot to do in regaining the confidence of the citizens. The CSPS has an important role to play in this regard.
• The Committee remains eager to see the outcome of the investigations and whether any high profile politicians or businessmen will be prosecuted for instigating the violent protests.
• Committee notes that this was not just about unemployment but a mix of things including elements of pure criminality and acts of sabotage
• The Police must do everything in their power to ensure that all those who broke the law are prosecuted.

 

 

The Economic Freedom Fighters and the Democratic Alliance raised its objections and reserved its rights with respect to the report.

 

 

Report to be considered.