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Zuma and company must take the blame for protest chaos
The former president and his children carry much of the blame for the chaos erupted after Zuma was taken to prison.
Officers walking along Umgeni Road after protests in support of former President Jacob Zuma. Photo: Gallo Images/Darren Stewart
Instead of acting as a leader and calming his followers, experts believe jailed Jacob Zuma stirred emotions and should take responsibility for the anarchy, intimidation and economic sabotage currently playing out in several parts of the country.
Although the insurrection was initially sparked by Zuma’s incarceration, experts have warned much of it has now become pure criminality and has also been hijacked to intimidate the judiciary ahead of Zuma’s corruption trial.
Since Zuma’s jailing for 15 months for defying a Constitutional Court order to appear before the Commission of Inquiry into State Capture, protesters have wreaked havoc in KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng in calling for his release.
The commission, chaired by Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo, is probing endemic corruption during his term as president, but Zuma has refused to answer to the testimony of many witnesses implicating him in wrongdoing.
Chaos erupted last Thursday after Zuma was taken to the Estcourt Correctional Services Centre, with more than 25 trucks torched in KwaZulu-Natal in violence which yesterday spilled over to Gauteng, where vehicles were destroyed and shops looted.
On Sunday, security guard Sphela Ndawonde, 24, was allegedly killed during skirmishes between police and looters in Jeppestown, with a police officer hospitalised with gunshot wounds after a violent mob turned on police officers who responded to looting in Alexandra.
‘Zuma must take full responsibility’
“[Zuma] must take full responsibility for the anarchy. He was presented with an opportunity to calm his supporters, tell them to respect the rule of law and not do anything wrong in his name, but he did not. Instead, he prepared them for instability. That is not what leaders do,” said independent socio-political analyst Solly Masilela.
He said this was now more about criminality and opportunism than it was about Zuma, warning it also created an opportunity for those hell-bent on toppling President Cyril Ramaphosa.
Masilela said immediately after the Nasrec conference, Zuma’s staunch supporter and suspended ANC secretary-general Ace Magashule, Ramaphosa’s political nemesis, went to KwaZulu-Natal and openely declared Ramaphosa would not last his full term as party president.
“The ANC should have dealt with this matter there and then. The economic sabotage we have seen is clearly to weaken Ramaphosa, so this matter now has many elements to it,” he said. North West University Professor André
Duvenhage said although it could not be proven, Zuma should take the blame for the anarchy.
He said though he expected some instability, but the extent to which it evolved took him by surprise.
However, he said he did not see it lasting another week.
“If it does, then we are in serious trouble, but I see a lot criminality in it and this is because generally we are a violent country with high unemployment and therefore despondency, so it is very easy to mobilise in such an environment,” he said.
Duvenhage said the silence of leaders on the incitement of violence and the support of the anarchy by Zuma’s children and his JG Foundation on public and social media platforms was worrying.
According to Verlie Oosthuizen, partner and head of social media law at Shepstone & Wylie Attorneys, inciting violence was a serious crime and social media posts could be used as evidence for prosecution.
“Therefore it will depend on the criminal activity perpetrated. If murder is encouraged, the maximum penalty that is charged for murder may be applicable to those inciting it,” Oosthuizen said.
She said if it can be shown that it is indeed them that have posted the incitement, they should be investigated and arrested.
“If they have posted content that incites imminent violence, and there is proof that it was them, they should be charged together with the people that actually committed the violence. The incitement is regarded as seriously as the crime that is encouraged,” Oosthuizen said.
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