Several unrest threats quelled since July riots, claims Bheki Cele

Police Minister Bheki Cele said many threats of civil unrest have been identified and subdued by the police since South Africa was rocked by riots and looting in July last year.

Cele was briefing media as Cabinet’s Justice, Crime Prevention, and Security Cluster on Friday gave an update on the July riots that spread through KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng.

“There have been several calls for shutdowns that have not happened because police responded,” said Cele.

He attributed this to better collaboration between the country’s security structures.

“I think the better working relationships and co-ordination of structures has worked,” said Cele.

Investigation into instigators

Cele said 19 people have been arrested with regards to the instigation of the unrest. He also said the Hawks are looking into 86 more people.

Defence Minister Thandi Modise said there are in total, 2,435 cases on the court roll in relation to the riots. Fifty cases have so far led to a guilty verdict, she said.

Referring specifically to the hotspot area of Phoenix, Modise said 164 cases were investigated, with 69 people arrested. She said 36 of these arrests were for the murder of 35 people in area. Another 31 were arrested for attempted murder.

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Bolstering security capacity

Modise said the security cluster has taken several steps to bolster the state’s capacity to respond to similar incidents in the future.

These include:

• 10,000 new police recruits will be sent to bolster police capacity in December;
• Public order police (POP) unit will get an extra 4,000 members;
• Refresher course training taking place for crowd control situations;
• POP also getting more funds for vehicles, aircraft and protective equipment.

Modise also said stability has returned to the State Security Agency (SSA) after qualified people were appointed to leadership positions.

She said the sharing of state security information has improved.

The defence minister added that the SANDF will continue to be on standby to support Saps, although this wasn’t evident as protests spread in Mpumalanga earlier this week.

“We understand we still have a long way to go to bring this cluster to its optimal level,” said Modise.