Police are trying to locate 11 other alleged instigators of the civil unrest that has claimed almost 120 lives and crippled the economy through the destruction of key supply chains, the acting minister in the presidency, Khumbudzo Ntshavheni, said.
During a briefing on Thursday afternoon, Ntshavheni announced that police had arrested one suspect, but she would not be drawn on a name, saying the individual had yet to appear in court and plead.
She would not comment on reports that Thulani Dlomo, a former head of the State Security Agency’s special operations unit whom News24 described as former president Jacob Zuma’s “private spy”, is a prime suspect.
“I do not know if Mr Thulani Dlomo is part of the 12 alleged instigators,” she said. “One is already in custody and the police tracking team has increased surveillance.”
The dozen alleged saboteurs are suspected of stoking civil unrest, which has brought freighting along the country’s main economic corridor from the KwaZulu-Natal coast inland to a standstill and halted the rollout of Covid-19 vaccines in the same province. Business has warned of a humanitarian crisis as acts of sabotage forced bread producers in KwaZulu-Natal to stop operations.
Initially linked to the arrest of Zuma for defying a Constitutional Court order, the violence escalated to more sinister acts than looting, which police minister Bheki Cele this week said were a “smokescreen”.
Ntshavheni said: “We have said these are not demonstrations. This is economic sabotage, and we have said there are perpetrators behind those questions and the police are investigating those instigators.”
Ntshavheni said the situation in KwaZulu-Natal remained volatile, whereas Gauteng was mostly calm due to the increased deployment of SA National Defence Force soldiers and law enforcement agencies, including the SA Police Service.
By Thursday afternoon, police had arrested 725 people in Gauteng, with a total of 26 killed in the province. In KwaZulu-Natal, the violence claimed 91 lives and almost 1,500 suspects had been arrested.
The violence is set to cost the economy, already battered by the Covid-19 outbreak and a national lockdown, billions of rand, while workers who were employed by businesses that were destroyed will add to the country’s record 32.6% unemployment rate.
Racial tension
On Thursday afternoon, Cele addressed racial tensions, which were said to be simmering in Phoenix, a town about 25km north of Durban whose residents are primarily Indian. But Cele said criminality was the main problem.
He said 20 bodies were discovered in the neighbourhood after the recent unrest, adding that the death toll there might rise because some people were still missing. “There are people that have raided these shops [who are] from Phoenix. They have been comrades there in stealing,” Cele said.
He admitted that police were stretched and that personnel were not trained for war or widespread unrest.
While the riots might have been genuine at the outset, more strategic actors were now involved, Cele said.
“Some elements have really taken over on the matter.”
The minister queried the depiction of looters as down and out after seeing expensive vehicles at some scenes of looting on the south coast. “There is an excuse that has been given, which I don’t say is genuine, that people are poor and hungry.”
He recalled visiting Mobeni, south of Durban, where looters had raided a gun shop.
“They stole the whole container of bullets. Are they going to eat bullets? Because they are hungry? No, you don’t eat bullets.”
Cele said he had travelled along the N2 highway during an inspection of damaged and destroyed shops and warehouses in KwaZulu-Natal.
“Along the fence there, there were beautiful cars, top cars [...] you could see that they were on the beach having [a] party. Is that hunger? No.”
Spokesperson Lirandzu Themba said Cele would visit Phoenix again on Friday.
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