Police Minister, General Bheki Cele says the current violence in parts of KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng provinces will soon be arrested, reversed and further looting will be prevented.
Minister Cele on Wednesday, 14 July 2021, conducted situational analysis of the destruction in some areas in both provinces. Cele received reports from local police in Phoenix and Mobeni in Durban, on their operational requirements to contain the violence in the two provinces.
The Minister remains encouraged that members of the South African Police Service working together with other law enforcement agencies, have managed to restore some level of public safety in parts of Gauteng Province, and is confident that the intervention of the South African Defence Force (SANDF) will turn around the volatile situation in parts of KwaZulu-Natal, following widespread violence and looting.
Minister Cele on Wednesday, 14 July 2021, conducted situational analysis of the destruction in some areas in Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal. Cele received reports from local law enforcement on their operational requirements to contain the violence in the two provinces.
Conducting a walk about in the Capital City, Tshwane Regional Mall, Nkomo Village in Mamelodi East Pretoria, where looting was cut short due to intervention by SAPS members and in some cases police were supported by community structures working together with the police to stop and prevent further looting.
Cele expressed appreciation to the community structures, who are working within the law to ensure community safety.
“It is through these working relations between police members, which will go a long way in squeezing out the space for criminality that is at the heart of these unrests. Police have responded to threats of buildings being targeted, including the Ford manufacturing plant in Mamelodi, it is through the quick responses of the SAPS, that many of these buildings have been left untouched and looting has been prevented.”
Later on, Minister Cele arrived in the Kwazulu-Natal province and headed to Phoenix in Durban, where he received a report on the latest violence and looting that has engulfed the community. Cele noted that racial tensions have marred the unrests and are characterising the community efforts to protect their neighbourhood from looting.
Fifteen people have been killed in this neighbourhood, since the start of the violence last week.
Cele says now that the SANDF is on the ground to assist the police while they restore law and order, he has expressed his confidence that safety in this community will be improved.
“While the situation is not ideal at all and there are ugly scenes playing out on the streets of Phoenix, the racial direction that these unrests are taking must be arrested speedily,” Cele concluded.
The Police Ministry is concerned by the mass business lootings in Mobeni, in the South of Durban, by hundreds of people from surrounding areas. The Minister saw first-hand, how mobs risked their lives during crowd control dispersal measures put in place by law enforcement on the ground.
The Ministry is pleased that engagements with the private security industry, have been escalated to improve coordination while managing the unrest.
Communities are encouraged to desist from partaking in the looting spree and the deployment of other law-enforcement agencies has served as a force multiplier on the ground to restore law and order.
