JOHANNESBURG, South Africa
South Africa’s security forces have been placed on high alert ahead of former president Jacob Zuma’s court appearance this week, with officials not keen for a repeat of the July riots, which left R50 billion worth of destruction in its wake.
The City Press reports that
law enforcement will be deployed to hotspot areas, where intelligence points to
the greatest likelihood for unrest.
The forces’ deployments have been
extended beyond the July 13 to 31 period to enable this.
The hotspots include the Pietermaritzburg
High Court, where Zuma will make his appearance on Tuesday (10 August).
Security forces will be out in number
until Saturday (14 August), the paper said. Zuma supporters are expected to be
out in full force.
President Cyril Ramaphosa’s newly-appointed security
cluster – which sees Thandi Modise as minister of defence joining police
minister Bheki Cele, and Zizi Kodwa as deputy minister of state security in the
presidency – will be looking to avoid a repeat of the riots which broke out in
July.
What started as isolated incidents of
public unrest in mid-July – purportedly over the arrest of Jacob Zuma for being
in contempt of the Constitutional Court – soon erupted into widespread looting
and violence in KwaZulu-Natal and parts of Gauteng.
Amid the looting, destruction, and arson,
South Africa’s police forces were scarcely seen; and in areas they were
present, they were too small in number to effectively do anything.
The situation remained volatile until
South African National Defence Force units were deployed to these areas to
assist the police.
Ultimately, 25,000 soldiers and support
staff were deployed to bring the situation under control – however, by that
time, the bulk of the damage was already done.
In briefings to parliament following the
unrest, the officials in charge at the time characterised it as a failure of
intelligence and blamed each other for the shortfalls.
Ramaphosa told the nation in an address
that the riots were part of a failed insurrection.
The government has placed the blame for
the riots squarely at the feet of a small group of instigators, who it says
were pushing a political agenda following Zuma’s arrest.
However, analysts have noted that, while
political goals may have been the match that lit the fuse, it’s the poor
socioeconomic condition of millions of people that fanned the flames, and the
infiltration of criminal elements such as gangs that kept the fire fed.
South Africa will probably experience
more frequent bouts of violent protests unless the government fast-tracks
growth-enhancing structural reforms, according to the Centre For Risk Analysis.
The country is reeling from a week of
deadly riots and looting last month that erupted in the eastern KwaZulu-Natal
province and the commercial hub of Gauteng after the jailing of former
President Jacob Zuma.
The violence marked the worst civil
unrest in South Africa since the end of White-minority rule in 1994 and left
342 people dead and thousands of businesses looted or burned down.
The violence reflects an economy that has
been “stagnant for more than a decade,” said Gerbrandt van Heerden, an analyst
at the Johannesburg-based think tank. “A lot of the unrest that South Africa
has experienced this year and before are connected to a failing state.”
Data shows there is a strong correlation
between economic growth and social stability, and rioting and looting could
become more prevalent in the next few years unless the authorities are serious
about implementing reforms, Van Heerden said.
Small businesses will likely suffer the
most from frequent unrest and higher crime levels will weigh on South Africa’s
ability to attract investment, he said.
GDP hasn’t expanded by more than 3% since
2011 and output is only expected to reach pre-pandemic levels in 2023. At
32.6%, South Africa’s official unemployment rate is the third-highest among 81
countries and the eurozone tracked by Bloomberg.
Last month’s turmoil could cost the
country about R50 billion in lost output, according to the South African
Property Owners Association. Economists see the damage shaving as much as one
percentage point off economic growth this year.
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