The ANC’s national executive committee (NEC) has compiled a list of its members who are suspected ringleaders or involved in the unrest that has erupted across the country following the imprisonment of former president Jacob Zuma for contempt of court.
Police said on Monday that at least six people have been killed and more than 200 arrested in connection with the protest and looting, which began in KwaZulu-Natal at the weekend with protesters calling for Zuma’s release. The violence has since spread to Gauteng and Mpumalanga.
Though the demonstrations began as pro-Zuma protests on Friday after the Pietermaritzburg high court dismissed Zuma’s application to interdict his arrest pending the outcome of his rescission application at the Constitutional Court on Monday, the ANC’s deputy secretary-general Jessie Duarte says the protests have probably been infiltrated by criminals.
Duarte said at a briefing on Monday after a meeting of the NEC that the protests have been organised to delegitimise the leadership of the ANC and the government. The incitement of violence by some ANC members, who have been identified, was likely to subside because “communities will turn away from that”, Duarte said.
She said the ANC had not identified any structures that had held “deliberate discussions” to create the wave of violence. However, Duarte said the names of those fuelling the flames had been handed over to the police for further investigation. While sympathetic to Zuma’s incarceration, the ANC has condemned the unrest and called for calm, Duarte said.
Relatively few people in KZN began the violence, Duarte said. In Gauteng and Mpumalanga, the ANC has identified one sub- region in Soweto that has a member who is “very strong.
“It’s what we call the strongman syndrome ... which attracts people because these are people who are linked to the people who insists on 35% of money that must come from local government where there is a contract,” she said.
Zuma was imprisoned last week after being found guilty of contempt of court for failing to adhere to a Constitutional Court order that he appear before the Zondo commission of inquiry. The former president is now serving his 15-month jail term at Estcourt prison.
On Sunday, President Cyril Ramaphosa condemned the violence and slated those who had organised and participated in the protests along ethnic lines. Zuma’s incarceration has caused tensions and divisions within the party that is on a reform drive, Duarte said.
The protests that erupted after Zuma turned himself over to the police were initially mobilised to support the former president under an ethnic banner. This ethnic mobilisations, however, is expected to subside because “it’s much bigger than that”, Duarte said.
“The looters are not declaring what ethnicity they are from.”
The NEC upheld its decision to disband the Umkhonto we Sizwe Military Veterans Association and the suspension of the unit’s spokesperson, Carl Niehaus, from the party. Niehaus was expelled from the party after holding a gathering outside Zuma’s home in Nkandla last week in contravention of Covid-19 lockdown regulations.
To deal with organisational discipline in the party, the ANC has appointed a seven-member integrity commission appeals committee consisting of ANC veterans including Vusi Khanyile, Mavivi Manzini, Josiah Jele and Dipuo Peters.
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