July 2021 Civil Unrest Hearing: President Ramaphosa Testifies at the SAHRC
President Cyril Ramaphosa is today the 1st of April 2022 giving evidence at the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) hearing into the July 2021 unrest in parts of the country. It is believed that the civil unrest was sparked by the imprisonment of former President Jacob Zuma for contempt of court. Earlier, the minister of Police, Bheki Cele told the SAHRC that the unrest has nothing to do with poverty but he described the unrest that gripped South Africa in July last year as a “failed insurrection”.
The SAHRC launched the hearing to uncover the causes of the unrest as well as its impact on human rights.
The civil unrest, which was concentrated more in KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng, left more than 300 people dead, 3407 arrested, and the infrastructure damage was estimated to be around billions of Rands. The economy was also affected heavily by the looting including the destruction of properties which was estimated to be R50 billion.
Some of the questions that SAHRC asked the president were ‘’Why cabinet did not speak of human rights abuses and who should take responsibility for the economy’’
This is what President Ramaphosa has to say about the civil unrest;
‘’It was planned, organised, sabotaged orchestrated, coordinated, attempted assault on our democracy. The intention was to weaken our democracy’’
‘’The reports given never alluded to the details of the unrest as it unfolds’’
‘’The police did the best but were failed by the system’’
‘’Private sector security did come and assist, they played a supportive role’’
‘’We felt the defence force would protect critical infrastructure’’
‘’We are biased to the vulnerable in the society’’
‘’Views that we favour the elite are not true’’
‘’We learnt that we need to rethink the role of the private security industry’’
‘’I was not pleased to see people being visited by police and food taken’’
‘’We need to focus more on those affected by poverty’’
‘’We will ensure that justice is done and those who were involved will face the full might of the law’’
‘’The arrest Impacted negatively on our democracy’’
‘’We are not proud of events in Phoenix, these were actions of vigilantism’’
‘’Systemic issues of the past contributed to July unrest’’
‘’A failure to address systemic issues will be an injustice’’
‘’Lack of coordination has been singled out as a problem by Africa Report’’
‘’We were not fully forewarned about what happened’’
‘’We are working on transforming state security’’
‘’*Attempted insurrection* is political speech’’
‘’Socio-economic challenges do constitute a threat to our national security’’
‘’We take accountability about what happened’’
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