Are Roodepoort malls and EMS taking terror attack alerts seriously?

Regardless of the South African government slamming the United States Embassy’s warning of an imminent terror attack as an “attack on the sovereignty of South Africa”, local shopping malls are taking the threat seriously.

This comes after the US embassy issued a warning on Saturday saying they “received information that terrorist groups are planning to carry out near-term attacks against places where US citizens congregate in South Africa, such as upscale shopping areas and malls in Johannesburg and Cape Town”. They issued the warning after receiving the information from a source and in the light of the Islamic State calling on its supporters to execute terror attacks across the globe during the holy month of Ramadan.

The UK and Australia followed suit and issued a similar warning to their citizens who might be travelling to South Africa.

The Record approached two popular local malls to find out their views on the threat.

Marius Muller, CEO of Pareto Limited that owns various malls including Westgate Shopping Centre and Southgate Mall said in a statement “We are aware of the US Diplomatic Mission to South Africa’s security message and have responded accordingly at all Pareto’s shopping centres. We would like to assure our visitors that their security is our highest priority. Consistent with Pareto’s proactive security protocols, we have placed our security teams on high alert and introduced additional security measures. We will also continue to work closely with the SAPS in this regard.”

The owners of Clearwater Mall, Hyprop Malls, said in their statement that “Hyprop has noted the potential terrorist risk precautionary that was issued. As a safeguard, additional security measures have been implemented in our malls, in line with our Group policy.”

Robert Mulaudzi, spokesperson of Joburg Emergency Management Services told the Record that EMS has contingency plans in case of a terrorist attack. However, it deals less with the law-enforcement aspect of such attacks and more with the aftermath such as fires, attending to the injured and rescuing residents who might be trapped inside buildings. He said though that EMS is not currently on terror alert.

But on Monday the spokesperson of the Department of International Relations and Cooperation (Dirco), Clayson Monyela, told the Record’s sister publication, The Citizen that “Dirco have found on closer examination the information to be dubious, unsubstantiated and provided by a ‘walk-in’ source based on questionable conclusions”.

Meanwhile security experts have criticised the South African government’s “head in the sand’ reaction to the warning.

Do you perhaps have more information pertaining to this story? Email us at roodepoortrecord@caxton.co.za (remember to include your contact details) or phone us on 011 955 1130.

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