‘No-one can claim they didn’t know things would boil over,’ says minister Dlodlo on July unrest

Minister of public service and former state security minister Ayanda Dlodlo told the SA Human Rights Commission on Tuesday that government was forewarned as early as December 2020 about the July 2021 unrest.

Dlodlo was giving evidence at the national investigative hearing into the unrest that claimed the lives of more than 340 people, and led to the destruction of businesses, property and caused billions of rand in damage. 

The National Intelligence Estimate, the minister explained, indicated that grievances on issuessuch as service delivery, would, sooner or later, culminate in protest and unrest.

“We knew what we were facing. I don’t think anybody can claim that they didn’t know that at some point, things would boil over. We did talk about the issue of the rule of law, the lawlessness, we spoke about a number of issues that could give rise to politically motivated unrest,” said the minister. 

Dlodlo added that other elements that contributed to the unrest were related to dissatisfaction with the general state of politics and governance in the country, inequality as a result of economic marginalisation, high levels of unemployment and some aspects, she said, were pure acts of criminality.

The minister said the State Security Agency, police and other structures met regularly to discuss issues about national security, and that the SSA issued alerts if threats were detected.