Eight of the 11 Constitutional Court judges have been provided with additional security at their respective residences following the judgment that sentenced former president Jacob Zuma to 15 months in jail.
Additional security has also been deployed for cabinet ministers in the security cluster and the premiers of KwaZulu-Natal, Sihle Zikhalala, and Gauteng, David Makhura, the SA Police Service (SAPS) said on Friday.
Security around the Constitutional Court precinct, office of the Chief Justice, the Union Buildings and OR Tambo International Airport has also been beefed up since the start of the violent unrest after Zuma’s arrest.
The SAPS, led by police deputy minister Cassel Mathale, Hawks head Gen Godfrey Lebeya and national police commissioner Khehla Sitole briefed parliament’s portfolio committee of police on Friday regarding the ongoing unrest in the two provinces.
The increased security for members of the judiciary and ministers comes after a week of violent unrest and looting that gripped parts of KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng since the handing down of the top court’s verdict which found Zuma guilty of contempt of court for defying an order that he appear before the commission of inquiry into state capture.
What started as sporadic instances in KwaZulu-Natal in response to Zuma’s arrest rapidly spread to Gauteng, and have negatively affected food and fuel supply chains. It has also slowed the Covid-19 vaccination drive.
Police arrested one individual on Friday morning in the West Rand in Gauteng, for inciting violence through social media. Police say they are hot on the heels of 12 others who are believed to be the instigators of the violence. Lebeya told MPs that that police had prioritised investigations into three people from a group of 12. He said the chief magistrate in Durban is on standby to issue warrants of arrests for three people after investigations have concluded.
Police are profiling the remaining nine suspects in order to link them to the current violence. More than 2,200 people had been arrested in connection with the violence by Friday morning.
Mathale told the committee that the unprecedented levels of violence and destruction caught the police off-guard and was “too huge” for the law-enforcement authorities.
“We could’ve acted better than what we did,” he conceded.
Police have arrested more than 2,200 people in connection to the violence while 117 have died since the riots began.
The turmoil in the two provinces had calmed by Thursday after law enforcement increased boots on the ground and 25,000 (from an initial 2,500) members of the military were deployed to hotspot areas to quell the unrest.
The deployment of additional members of the SAPS to hotspot areas is set to cost an estimated R350m, adding further pressure to the ministry’s budget, which was drastically reduced in the February 2021 budget.
To cover the costs of the operation, the police’s delegation to parliament said the department’s budget may be reprioritised by cutting out underperforming projects. The department will also seek the Treasury’s approval for any additional costs that may be incurred, police say.
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