ANC a ‘menace to South African society’ – EFF on July riots report

The 154-page report compiled by a panel of experts that investigated the reasons behind the July 2021 riots that was published on Monday reached the correct conclusion, the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) said in a statement.

The party said in their response to the report that the ANC government and its security institutions must be “squarely blamed”, while noting the “worsening socio-economic conditions of our people as a fertile ground for the mobilisation”. 

“Overall, the report has given substance to observations the EFF had already drawn regarding the riots. 

“Firstly, is that the ANC has become a menace to South African society and a key source of the July riots.” 

They said the ANC has become “incapable of governing South Africa.” 

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But despite agreeing that the executive needed to take responsibility for its “lapse of leadership”, and that the country’s security structures were left wanting, the EFF said the report also had “several weaknesses which undermine the credibility of its conclusions with regards to intelligence services”. 

The party referred to experts conceding in the report that intelligence reports and classified documents were not seen by them, but that they were still confident their findings were valid. 

“A key question that the country needed to know is whether the president and or the minister of police knew about the planned riots and did nothing to stop them.” 

The EFF said it believed former state security minister Ayanda Dlodlo “misled” the country about providing riot information to police. 

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“The minister seems to have repeated the same lies to the expert panel without providing evidence to back them up.” 

The party said intelligence information Dlodlo alleged she wanted to share with Ramaphosa, but did not, never existed, and that government anticipated protests to stop former president Jacob Zuma’s arrest. 

What they did not consider, the statement continues, is there would be riots. 

The lack of inquiry into the Phoenix killings was, the party said, the “greatest weakness of the report”. 

“In fact, the report only mentioned Phoenix eight times without ever putting it as a focus area or topic. In Phoenix there was systematic killing of African people by armed Indian militia groups with the possible complicity of the police and government.” 

The party said nowhere in the report was the “dangerous celebration of vigilantism” mentioned. 

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