SAHRC to start Gauteng leg of July 2021 unrest investigation

While the country is still reeling from the damning findings by a report of the expert panel appointed in August 2021 to review government’s response to the July 2021 unrest Gauteng and KZN, the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) is set to resume its investigative hearing into the unrest, this time focusing on Gauteng.

According to the SAHRC the hearings will start from Monday 21 February until Friday 4 March.

“This second leg of the National Hearing will focus on events as they unfolded in Gauteng Province during the unrest in July 2021 and will also feature the continuation of evidence from the KZN sitting,” reads a statement from the Sahrc.

“The Hearing Panel is due to hear testimony from survivors, various community members as well as industry players in commerce, private security and state officials.”

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It said that the subject matter of this hearing is a matter of national concern and involved various rights, such as that to “security, the right to be free from all forms of violence, the right to not to have one’s possessions seized and the right to life”.

The commission received R3 million from Treasury to probe the causes of the unrest and produce a report.

Earlier this month the report of a panel of experts appointed to look into, among other things, the cause of the riots which swept through the two provinces, concluded that catastrophic failures by the police, intelligence structures, and the executive to quell the violence resulted in destruction and looting, which wiped R50 billion from the economy, left more than 354 people dead and scores others injured.

Furthermore, it found that internal ANC battles have now become a matter of national security and a serious source of instability in the country.

Along with inequality, poor service delivery, high unemployment levels, the culture of violence and the looting bonanza of state resources all combined have created the perfect breeding ground for future violent outbreaks of this scale.

“Our Constitution is founded on the principle of accountability. The Commission’s mandate is, among others, to monitor and assess the observance of human rights in the Republic. Ultimately it falls on the Commission in terms of the Constitution of the Republic to investigate and report on issues where human rights have been violated and to take steps to secure appropriate redress,” Gushwell Brooks of the commission said.

“All parties and stakeholders will be afforded every opportunity to be heard in a fair and unbiased fashion.”