Protest update: Lamola promises quick processing of looters

Despite a limited staff complement, overcrowding in police cells and challenges in transporting detainees, Justice and
Correctional Services Minister Ronald Lamola yesterday promised quick processing of those arrested for violence and looting over the past two weeks.

Briefing the parliamentary portfolio committee on justice and correctional services, Lamola warned that violent acts of
burning national key installations fell within the parameters of the Protection of Constitutional Democracy Against Terrorist And Related Activities Act.

This included disruptions of economic activities and the blockading of national roads – leading to disruptions of key supplies, with dire consequences for thousands of people.

Conceding that the arrests of 1 498 in KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) and Gauteng posed operational challenges for the country’s criminal justice system, Lamola cited “limited staff at offices due to Covid-related reasons, as well as transport problems occasioned by the unrest”.

“Another challenge is overcrowding of South African Police Service cells. As a result, quick processing of detainees will be required.

“From a correctional services perspective, we are required to reconfigure remand now that that detention system that is overburdened.

“We have received a high number of remand detainees in KZN and Gauteng, as a result of arrests made for recent criminal acts and violence.

“Our facilities are stretched due to overcrowding; our challenges are also exacerbated by the Covid pandemic. However, we continue to mitigate against challenges through various measures. Both Gauteng and KZN are coping and they continue to admit new inmates.

“Rest assured that no one who took part in acts of criminality will evade justice. Our institutions are working together to expedite all matters before them. Justice will take its course and the rule of law will reign supreme,” added Lamola.

Government, he said, established an integrated task team on the management of unrest and related cases.

The task team – convened by the department of justice and constitutional development – comprised the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA), Legal Aid SA, Saps and the department of correctional services.

The task team’s specific terms of reference included:

• Receiving, validating reports and statistics from KZN and Gauteng;
• Attending to blockages across the criminal justice value chain;
• Addressing escalated matters for decisions and escalate where necessary;
• Facilitating resource allocation, where necessary; and
• Adopting a project management approach to resolving operational challenges.

Lamola said the collaboration between the NPA and Saps would see emerging cases being divided into:

• Actual looters and persons participating in stealing from shops and outlets;
• Persons found in possession of stolen properties;
• Groups and individuals stealing property in big quantities, organised or planned action; and
• Enticement or inciting public violence.

“Experienced prosecutors have been assigned from the organised crime and priority crime litigation units. Crime heads in the provinces, under the direction of the directors of public prosecutions, are assigned to deal with more complicated and serious matters,” explained Lamola.

The recent eruptions of violence and looting was “an unprecedented assault on our democracy”.

Said Lamola: “In the past week, we all saw that the foundations of our constitutional democracy were tested, with many
citizens in our communities standing firm and showing our country’s unwavering commitment to the rule of law.

“Our heroes and heroines are not those who destroy, but those who build.”

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