Poverty among national threats, says former state security minister Dlodlo

Former state security minister Ayanda Dlodlo has painted a bleak picture of how the dire situation faced by many South Africans is a threat to national security.

Addressing the SA Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) on Tuesday, Dlodlo said poverty, unemployment and inequality are threats to national security.

Dlodlo said without sounding prophetic, she imagined that a youth unemployment rate of more than 30% was bound to cause unrest.

Her appearance before the SAHRC was about the State Security Agency’s (SSA) role in the July 2021 unrest and looting in Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal after the incarceration of former president Jacob Zuma.

Dlodlo said between 2,000 and 3,000 youth took part in looting one mall during the unrest. She said she was confident most of those people could not have been employed individuals who left their day jobs to loot. She believes scores were unemployed.

The minister called for solutions and said something as simple as ensuring adequate service delivery was a step in the right direction. This, she said, did not need intelligence intervention.

“South Africans are reasonable. It is only when there is inaction and lack of information at their disposal that they take action,” she said.

Three elements led to the July 2021 unrest, said Dlodlo. These were political, criminal and poverty elements.

Dlodlo testified at the hearings to defend her department, claiming it had done its job in issuing multiple warnings ahead of the unrest.

This after police minister Bheki Cele testified that he had not received any intelligence briefings ahead of the unrest. This was despite there being a national joint operational and intelligence structure (NatJOINTS) in place which comprised the police crime intelligence wing, the SSA and military intelligence.

Dlodlo presented a long list of alerts issued during NatJOINTS gatherings, which she claimed were chaired by the police crime intelligence wing.

“The SSA warned of growing instability,” said Dlodlo, who added that in December 2020 they could tell unrest could be expected in the months ahead. 

She said she would have expected to receive intelligence reports from the SSA, which is her department, and Cele should have been receiving these from police crime intelligence, suggesting it was ridiculous for her to take the blame for police shortcomings.

Dlodlo said at the height of the unrest and looting, she, Cele and defence minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula had “worked well together” and dismissed Cele’s claims about being kept in the dark as “nothing but theatrics”.

She said there were no laws in place that forced government departments to act on the alerts they issued, saying “the responsibility to implement action lies with the state-owned enterprises”, but a bill which would address this was before President Cyril Ramaphosa and had been since 2019.

One of the commissioners described Dlodlo’s revelations before the SAHRC as scary, saying they exposed the lack of co-ordination in the country’s structures about what should be done in times of crisis.

Dlodlo said while she was there to speak the truth, she also wanted to highlight there was hope, saying while the state could be likened to slow-moving machinery, it could move faster.  

The hearings are scheduled to resume on Wednesday. 

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