Has SA learned from the experience of the July 2021 unrest?

Has South Africa learned from the shocking experience of the July 2021 unrest? This is a pertinent question, as the country marks two years after the riots that plagued KwaZulu-Natal and parts of Gauteng.

The country was engulfed by an insurrection of looters, almost collapsing the economy under the pretence of retaliating against the arrest of former president Jacob Zuma for contempt of court. This resulted in the deaths of 354 people and about R50 billion in damage to property.

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This period has highlighted how hungry South Africans are for a better life – and how tired they are of being faced with social injustice. But after those riots nothing much has changed. KZN is yet to recover and the economy is still not growing at the rate that is required.

It seems those riots did nothing but take South Africa a step backwards, for those protests achieved the opposite of what was intended.

Infrastructure was ruined, businesses were destroyed and jobs were shed. Hence, poverty is still rife, unemployment still persists, inequality is still a problem and crime is still a contributing factor to the social ills affecting our country.

With the slow pace that the government is going about addressing these issues, concern is high with regard to how effective it will be in preventing another severe unrest incident.

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Intelligence services failed to foresee the July 2021 unrest, and it is not clear if the government has taken any steps to improve it and channel it to serve its mandate.

Like our justice system and military, our intelligence services have capability, but the problem lies in those in power undermining these institutions for their own personal gain. Once that is addressed, we will be able to see the emergence of our intelligence apparatus.

If we are to avoid a part two of the July 2021 riots, government must put South Africa first and implement the recommendations of the expert panel report on intelligence. In so doing, intelligence will be able to fulfil its constitutional mandate.

In addition, parliament should afford the intelligence sector secrecy so it can operate like the Central Intelligence Agency in the United States. But even then, we shouldn’t be complacent because as long as government is dragging its feet in addressing structural problems, South Africans will be impatient and will resort to more destructive ways to drawattention to their pleas.

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Being lax cannot be tolerated anymore and South Africa cannot withstand further economic sabotage. We hope government has learnt from this grave situation and will stop using state intelligence resources to purge political rivals.

Six trucks were torched on Sunday on the N3 toll route in the vicinity of Van Reenen’s Pass in KZN, while a few hours later, five were torched under similar circumstances on the N4 highway in Mpumalanga and another two in Mpangeni on Monday night.

This should be a testament that the reform of state intelligence is a necessity and it should be allowed free rein to do its job to prevent these occurrences that hit the economy.

We also hope that the July 2021 unrest serves as a lesson to South Africans: violent protests will never be a solution but will hinder progress.

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Now is the time for South Africans to channel their energy towards active citizenry if they want real change.