Violent Protests: Little to address elephant in room

As the only minister in the incorrectly named “security” cluster (which offers citizens precious little real security) who did not blot his copybook during the recent revolt, Justice Minister Ronald Lamola tried yesterday to give the appearance that justice is being administered in the wake of the looting and destruction.

Briefing Parliament, Lamola vowed that, despite a limited staff complement, overcrowding in police cells and challenges in transporting detainees, those who had been arrested in connection with the anarchy would be processed through the justice system with haste.

Lamola said the upheaval was “an unprecedented assault on our democracy, social contract and rule of law.”

He added “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.”

Those fine words, along with commitments to visit justice swiftly on the lawbreakers, does little to address the elephant in the room. And that is, what is being done about the ringleaders those who planned the insurrection and then ordered underlings to carry it out?

They are not the people who took flat-screen TVs, fridges or even booze and food. They were not the people who sent out inflammatory messages on social media. They were, though, the ones sitting safely, watching the violence unfold, according to their vision.

We have heard about the so-called 12 plotters but where are they?

These are exactly the sort of people who, being trained for years in what Thabo Mbeki called the “dark arts” of espionage, can smoothly roll out the cloak of “plausible deniability” to cover their actions.

There will be no justice and little peace until they are brought to book.

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