ANALYSIS
How the reports into the July 2021 unrest let South Africa down
The July 2021 unrest was one of the most traumatic episodes in post-apartheid South Africa. New reports on it from the South African Human Rights Commission and the Cultural, Religious and Linguistic Rights Commission take us almost no closer to understanding what happened and why.
More than 350 people died in the terrifying maelstrom of events in mid-July 2021 in South Africa that we now gloss over as the “July 2021 unrest”. Most of those people died in just three days, between the start of Monday, 12 July and the end of Wednesday, 14 July.
They were, we suggested at the time in Daily Maverick, possibly the three bloodiest days in South Africa’s democratic history.
How did those hundreds of people die, and why?
How did damage estimated at R50-billion come to be inflicted on South Africa’s economy, and to what end?
The aftermath of protests and looting at Ndofaya Mall in Soweto on 13 July 2021. (Photo: Gallo Images / Papi Morake)
Anyone relying for answers on reports released this week by the SA Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) and the Cultural, Religious and Linguistic Rights Commission will find themselves almost none the wiser. Indeed, the quality of these reports should raise serious questions about the continued viability of these publicly funded Chapter Nine institutions.
The SAHRC held eight months of public hearings to investigate the July 2021 unrest, from November 2021 to June 2022. Its panel, consisting of commissioners Andre Gaum, Chris Nissen and Philile Ntuli, heard 54 oral testimonies and considered more than 120 written submissions.
The 252-page report it has produced cannot be faulted on one particular front: its eagerness to find literary parallels for the shocking events of July 2021. It cites Nadine Gordimer’s July’s People — the title of which is doing a lot of the interpretive heavy lifting here — as well as William Golding’s Lord of the Flies and Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness.
What it does not do is join the necessary dots in any meaningful way.
An extremely odd finding
“The commission finds that while the timing of the events of the July unrest coincided with the incarceration of former President Jacob Zuma, it could not find evidence to link the two events,” the report concludes.
This is extremely odd, to say the least, given that the report contains no fewer than 112 references to Zuma — almost one every two pages.
Alexandra township residents embark on a clean-up campaign at Pan Africa Shopping Mall on 18 July 2021 after the looting and vandalism during the violent protests that spread from KwaZulu-Natal after the incarceration of former president Jacob Zuma. (Photo: Gallo Images / City Press / Tebogo Letsie)
It is undoubtedly true that not everyone participating in the looting or violence of this period was motivated by support for Zuma; indeed, when Daily Maverick was on the ground investigating what had happened in KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng shortly afterwards, almost nobody mentioned Zuma’s name to us.
But to say that no evidence exists to link the incarceration of Zuma to the outbreak of violence is simply ludicrous, even by the evidentiary standards of the report itself. There are lengthy accounts within it of the build-up of tensions around Nkandla and the mobilising of pro-Zuma forces on social media, as well as testimonies about the appearance of graffiti calling for Zuma’s release and exhorting President Cyril Ramaphosa to “go back to Venda”.
The report even quotes the opinion of former police commissioner Khehla Sitole, that “the unrest started at a high level … triggered by the Zuma judgment by the Constitutional Court”.
It is also frankly inexplicable that although the report spends some time handwringing over misinformation and instigation via social media, not once does it mention the role played by Zuma’s daughter Dudu Zuma-Sambudla on what was then Twitter — or the fact that a year later, Zuma-Sambudla took to the same platform to suggest “another unrest” might be in order.
This is doubly weird given that the report does single out another Zuma child, noting that “former President Jacob Zuma’s son, Mr Edward Zuma, was reported to have threatened bloodshed if his father was incarcerated”.
Edward Zuma’s comments, made in what appeared to be an inebriated state during a live TV crossing to Nkandla, were arguably far less significant than his half-sibling’s repeated invocation of violence on social media.
An SANDF Oryx helicopter lands at Alex Mall. Chief of the South African National Defence Force Lieutenant General Rudzani Maphwanya visited the mall after violent protests and looting on 16 July 2021 in Alexandra, Johannesburg. The violence began in KwaZulu-Natal after the jailing of former president Jacob Zuma and spread to Gauteng. (Photo: Gallo Images / Alet Pretorius)
Then again, the report’s discussion of social media suggests that the panellists might not be quite sure what it is.
“The retrieval of social media evidence has been the main challenge in prosecuting these matters,” it states. “Even where evidence has been retrieved, language barriers have been an issue, or code words in the form of emojis have been used.” (Their italics.)
This elicits a vision of the SAHRC panellists, as well as the relevant prosecutors, peering at Twitter in the manner of Bletchley Park cryptographers deciphering gnomic Nazi telegraphs. Perhaps the relevant authorities could simply get some Gen Zs on board.
Having ruled out Zuma’s arrest as the cause of the unrest, the report proceeds to rule out pretty much everything else too.
“The socio-economic conditions of the majority of South Africans were a major factor in the spread, extent, and scale of the unrest. However, it [sic] was not the cause,” the report states.
An unsatisfactory conclusion
In this respect the report is somewhat reminiscent of the climax of a Hercule Poirot novel — there’s one literary reference they missed — in which the Belgian detective proceeds to implicate and then exonerate each suspect in turn. Except that here, we are ultimately left with no suspects at all.
“It is probable that the unrest was undertaken to destabilise the economy. However, it will ultimately be within the purview of the South African Police Service (SAPS) and the National Prosecutions Authority to make a conclusive finding regarding the orchestration of the unrest,” the report helpfully concludes.
Similarly: “The Commission recommends that SAPS compile a full and comprehensive report on all unrest-related deaths and submit same to the Commission. A clear explanation of the circumstances in which these occurred must be included.”
When that happens, perhaps the SAHRC can release a kind of PS report with the actual answers.
But if the SAHRC report leaves one frustrated, it’s hard to explain the emotional impact of the report released on the same day by the Cultural, Religious and Linguistic (CRL) Rights Commission. This commission’s mandate was more limited: to look into what happened in the Durban suburb of Phoenix in particular, where racial tensions exploded during the period in question.
The 25-page report contains no specific details of any evidence collected, blithely skipping from its rationale to its findings.
Perhaps it will suffice to simply present, without comment, two of its recommendations in terms of healing the wounds between black and Indian residents of Phoenix.
“We recommend Inter sports activities like soccer, swimming, netball etc., to be held frequently as a way of encouraging an interaction between the two communities,” it states.
“CRL Rights Commission recommends that government should build a statue in remembrance of people who lost their lives during the 2021 Unrest”.
In reality, they deserve so much more than either of these dismal reports. DM
Become an Insider
Yeah what a disaster it was, wonder if those hungry vultures managed to eat all the appliances they STOLE.
Some of my friends still live with the scars of those three days of hooliganism, shame on you.
Banal. What tax payers pay for is banal. We should all stop paying taxes until we can get some sense out of Gvt.
We can run around in circles for a thousand years, or we can simply accept that
(1) the ANC set out to make South Africa ungovernable (Oliver Tambo, Radio Freedom, 10 October, 1984)
(2) it succeeded in making South Africa ungovernable, to the point where the Ancien Regime of the National Party had to give up and surrender power
(3) the ANC, once in power, did not have the ability, or even the will, to make the country governable again.
(4) consequently, South Africa remains, to a significant extent, ungovernable, and the government is powerless to do anything about it.
Thank you for summarizing these reports – saved a world of time.
There were undoubtedly instigators, orchestrators and/or “primary actors”, but they were only exploiting the predisposition of thousands and thousands to loot and pillage when the threat of punishment has by and large been removed. How many actual looters were brought to book. We all recall video footage of many such being caught in the act or for later being in possession of stolen loot. What happened to them? Without real consequences one would have to be a fool to expect anything but EVEN WORSE next time around.
Great analysis. The trucking syndicates also existed well before the unrest. Without proper action and consequences, we will see this again.
So true, little done to any looters…. or to the Zuma family
🤣🤣ANC deployees have outdone themselves this time.
Very sad!!!
I has believed that something of value would flow from this report – I was wrong!!
We must be one of the few counties in the world who after losing more than 350 lives and R50-billion can accept an outcome like this.
Two years, 350 lives, R500-billion and 250 pages later and we are not sure who caused it or why it was done!!!
One almost wonders if this enquiry was intended to produce nothing?
Really very, very poor – do better please!!!
Well said. Also completely missing is the construction mafia who played a key role using their heavy equipment knocking down fencing and opening gates, intending to benefit by getting reconstruction tenders and taking over mall shop leases. Tear down, rebuild and reshape the economy for the RET agenda, to paraphrase another prominent person on his videos, who escapes all mention regarding looting responsibly. One of these ‘business forums’ bragged about having 8,000 members involved. Why no mention of them hoping for a ‘Marikana-style’ massacre, to get rid of the president, which may have been a reason the police held back. Why is this being covered up? This was a ‘revolution’ to seize control of the country, the economy and possibly the judiciary,but not apparent in this report.
No words to describe the sense of hopelessness. If rule of law ignored God help us! Tax boycotts, municipality rates boycotts and the likes to follow.
How does one loot responsibly? Asking for a friend… 😏
Andre Gaum being that shining beacon of integrity, who threatened to drag the Western Cape government to court over its reopening of schools during the lockdown, but whose own brat was physically attending a private school at the time.
Likewise, Chris Nissen was a former ANC provincial chairman.
The HRC has absolutely zero credibility and is in fact a deliberate spreader of misinformation and fake news, being a mere organ of the ANC.
The HRC is just about
And Andre Gaum and kie were only interested in the lunch arrangements every day, also paid by the taxpayers while there are people dying of hunger. A predetermined outcome from the start, going for the Indians of Phoenix as though that is where it started
Both reports are a lazy sloppy joke. Both these publicly-funded institutions should be shut down immediately and their highly-salaried non-functioning heads removed.
Didn’t Zuma’s own defense team state in court that civil unrest would follow if the former prisoner were returned to jail?
I just wonder: what the recommended action would have been if the HRC found a strong connection between Zuma’s incarceration and the unrest; would they have recommended that any legal action against Zuma should cease? Or should the instigators, including the Zuma children be prosecuted? Seems like the HRC (an ANC cadre deployment) decided to choose the ease option, befitting of a softie like Gaum.
Seemingly yet another report that would gain an A for obfuscation.
Wonder whether there’s a special course somewhere that teaches people how to write lengthy reports that ignore facts and lead nowhere? Maybe you get employed for having this ability? It certainly seems increasingly evident in “spokespersons” and certain “investigatory reports”.
What has happened to the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth?
We live in the age of “the truth according to ME”. But that ultimately leads to the same chaos as July 2021…
Well, looking at the commissioners on the panel, that special course might be called law school. Or the seminary. Or maybe gender studies. Heck, maybe it’s multidisciplinary!
How to you play soccer, swim or play netball when the posts are stolen and the pool is full of garbage? The authors live in a different world.
These lefties do not realise that they are actively promoting privatisation!
You may find this interesting – what I have been able to understand from talking to the people most affected [those that catch the taxis to work every day]:
Recent turf war between rival taxi groups Bambanela [Margate and south to Port Edward] and Gamlakhe – which affected the economy of the lower KZN coast this past week which is already on its knees, thanks to RNM and UGU
Background: the people caught in the middle abstained from voting in the last election because of poor service delivery by ANC
9 million people registered to vote abstained from voting in 2019
Passengers trying to video the troubles were shot at by taxi operators – collateral damage to those that actually pay to keep these taxis in business
Police [ANC] were passive bystanders – although there was a presence, not sure how many were arrested…
Now the kicker – most disaffected taxi passengers [south] say they are going to vote for Mkonto We Sizwe [MK] – meaning Jacob Zuma in the coming election and not the ANC
Really? Anyone wonder why SA is in a pickle?
Anyone else have more/other information/opinion/gossip than this?
Hogwash!
Commisions in SA are created to protect the ANC criminal regime through the strategy of ‘whitewashing’.
Both the reports are a farce and a waste of taxpayer money … even obstruction of justice by MISREPRESENTATION of the facts!
Prosecute the colluding perpetrators in the commissions!
One ANC faction (Zulus) attempted a violent grab of state power from the Ramaphosa faction.
The Zulu offenders targeted White and Indian enterprizes in the areas, in a blatant racist attack!
Heads must roll for the barbaric, violent riots!
With regards to the racial tensions that occurred in Phoenix during the unrest the were a lot of instructions to the rioters on social media telling them to kill the Indians,hence the fear of the Indians which is historically based due to the Inanda uprising many decades ago in which many Indians were brutally murdered in their homes as well as many women being raped.I don’t condone what happened in Phoenix,but the Indians in Phoenix should not be the only ones to be called “Racists” when it was the Blacks who instigated it in the first place as,prior to the unrest,everybody was living in relative peace and not all 350 deaths occurred in Phoenix as many deaths resulted in the Rioters killing each other.I guess it’s easier for one to constantly play the victim & shift the blame to another.Just the politics of our country,I suppose.
And it took two and a half years to get to this startling conclusion!!
Seems to be a good case for dissolving both bodies….. no doubt controlled directly and indirectly by the ANC,…and at a huge cost..
Only after almost 3 years after the Looting and The Phoenix massacre they found out that there is Racial Tension in this Country?
Unfortunately, SAHRC, has proven the long held belief – They are over paid ANC cadres driving ANC policy at the cost of the taxpayer.
The faster we get rid of this organisation, that looks more and more like UNRWA, the better for ALL humans in South Africa. From Tebang Bonang with his one man prosecution, judgement and sentencing of Eben Etsebeth to adv Gaum, the whole lot should be sent packing.
What a disgracee they are.
The SA Police were caught absolutely flat footed and became mere spectators. Where was Bheki Cele? He always runs to hot spots in his ridiculous hat but maybe this one was too hot for him. If the rioting and carnage proved one thing, it is that under Cele our police force has been reduced to high levels of corruption and ongoing lack of discipline. Thanks Mr. Minister!
The comparison to DM’s commentary on this, compared to the Marikana massacre is noticeable. The deaths of the security guards at Marikana were downplayed compared to the mine workers. I would have expected a stronger reaction from the self righteous DM at the time.
Duh! It’s an erection year. Well for some anyway. What else did you expect? Seriously. We are on our own peeps and the photograph summed it up neatly. The army helicopter arriving to inspect the damage. Where were the generals in the middle of the riots leading from the front to protect the country? Safely in bed, turning over to go back to sleep, someone else’s problem to deal with. It always is.
This is a perfect example of how these people think.
Zuma’s insatiable lust for power and riches took SA to the precipice yet hundreds of thousands and more likely millions idolize him and pour out onto the streets in an orgy of destruction and deaths. Must be mind boggling to outsiders but quite normal to South Africans. Woe the dark continent.
To be quite honest, the SAHRC is like a dog without teeth or a bark. So this begs the question as to why they have not slated the Zuma family and its factions who clearly incited violence on social media. The deaths of individuals lands squarely on their shoulders. The government also has a large part of the blame to bear, as they were pathetically slow in their response. How do you let SAOS members run out of ammo, and civilians have to step up and co-ordinate delivery of such to members under fire.
Lawlessness has invaded the country because of a very weak government riddles with corrupt individuals calling the shots. It is time for change, before another July 2021 unrest situation happens. Ordinary people are frustrated and angry. Hopefully people will think about how they vote this year. There is still hope.