July unrest showed how easy it was for groups to cause instability – expert

Protests against illegal mining on the West Rand around Krugersdorp continued on Friday, after the Munsieville informal settlement followed in Kagiso residents’ footsteps and closed down the township to clean up and uproot the illegal miners in the area.

And after years of strife in the area, with residents complaining of being ignored, President Cyril Ramaphosa on Friday said angry residents should not take the law into their own hands.

“We cannot as South Africans reach a level where we resort to mob justice,” Ramaphosa said, speaking at the presidential social sector summit.

ALSO READ: Krugersdorp incident a reminder that govt must do more to tackle GBV – Ramaphosa

“Over the past few days, we have witnessed scenes of violent protest, damage to public infrastructure and, in some cases, loss of life in areas such as Kagiso in the West Rand and Tembisa in Ekurhuleni.

“These incidents are of grave concern and highlight many of the challenges our country faces.

“As we address these incidents, we need to distinguish between legitimate protest and criminality, addressing the concerns and grievances of communities, while acting to prevent loss of life and destruction of property,” said Ramaphosa.

ActionSA president Herman Mashaba said the illegal mining problem was much bigger than we thought.

“It is grossly unfortunate that residents have had to resort to taking the law into their own hands to the failure of the South African Police Service in dealing with rampant crime in their community despite numerous reports lodged,” Mashaba said.

“It is even more tragic and extremely bizarre to witness the ANC national spokesperson Pule Mabe making promises to address illegal immigration when it is the ANC government who have failed to properly deal with this issue for over two decades,” he added.

Mashaba said ActionSA acknowledged the lived realities of the people of Kagiso and appreciated the danger under which they lived with the lurking criminality perpetrated by illegal miners found to be undocumented immigrants reportedly from Lesotho, Zimbabwe, and Mozambique.

READ MORE: Radicalisation of protests a reaction to absence of a meaningful response from govt – expert

“For many years the people of Kagiso have lived in the hope our criminal justice system will address the issue of illegal immigration and the proliferation of illegal mining activities in the area.”

“The boiling pot for this has been the ignorance of both law and order and immigration control, which then sparked the recent violent attacks by the community to rid themselves of criminality and constant danger,” he said.

Project manager of the Institute for Security Studies’ (ISS) Crime and Justice Information Hub Lizette Lancaster said last year, that the July unrest, had shown how easy it was for groups to cause instability.

“People are hungry and unemployed,” Lancaster said.

She said the level of unrest depended on how well these groups were mobilised, coordinated and organised.

“The winter makes things worse. People are cold and hungry. It’s a time-struck season, with a lot of labour unrest and negotiations. People feed off each other,” she added.

ALSO READ: Krugersdorp rape horror – why are cops only acting now against zama zamas?

Lancaster said protests historically peak in July.

“It’s nothing new. What is new is the level of frustration and violence that is growing,” she said.

This weekend Police Minister Bheki Cele and National Police Commissioner General Fannie Masemola were expected to visit both Kagiso and West Village to lead a ministerial crime combating imbizo.

Nadia Steyn, who lived in West Village, said she will be at the imbizo.

When Steyn arrived home yesterday afternoon, she saw some roads blocked with burning rubble.

“I just drove around it. In the village, you can see things happening and burning. We can’t see what is going on but it feels like they have closed off the area. Like as if we are in quarantine,” she said.

Police spokesperson Brigadier Brenda Muridili said they were monitoring the situation.

NOW READ: Specialised unit ‘a solution’ to deal with illegal mining – Mantashe