We welcome the deployment of the army to areas affected by the riots calling for former president Jacob Zuma’s release from jail.
The cabinet decided yesterday that soldiers must be sent to assist police restore calm in KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng. This is after thousands of demonstrators have been rampaging through the provinces since Friday.
President Cyril Ramaphosa has been under pressure to deploy the troops when the looting escalated after over 30 trucks were torched on the N3 at the weekend. Since then the violence has spilt into communities, where shops have been looted. It escalated yesterday, with more businesses being attacked, with a centre set alight in KZN and a mall looted in Soweto.
Police are also investigating details surrounding six deaths after four people were killed in Gauteng and two in KZN.
The deployment of the army is long overdue. When we went into hard lockdown last year soldiers assisted police to keep law and order in our communities. The troops are needed more now in a country currently ravaged by a third wave of the Covid-19 pandemic that sees a spike in infections on a daily basis. Some are succumbing to the deadly virus daily.
The effects of demonstrations in which people do not wear masks or practice social distancing will soon burden a health system that is already under severe pressure. The army could have helped the outnumbered police officers disperse the crowds sooner and stop the destruction of property currently being witnessed.
Still, however late it is, the deployment is still a positive move because violence is escalating and endangering innocent citizens. We hope that with more law enforcement officers on the ground, law and order will be restored and our streets will be peaceful again.
We cannot continue like this. We call on the demonstrators to calm down as nobody can interfere with the work of the judiciary. Your protests are violent, and the meting out of violence is a crime, the consequences of which is jail time.
Destroying property and looting shops will have a negative impact on our economy and contribute to even higher unemployment rates.
We call for peace!
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