Government wants all hands on deck to avoid repeat of 2021 riots

Police leave is being cancelled and R600m has been set aside as the government insists that all hands should be on deck to avoid a repeat of the July 2021 riots on June 30.

Recent messaging from the police ministry and the rest of the government is, so far, giving a glimmer of hope that the state will be more prepared next week than it was when parts of KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng went up in smoke following the 2021 incarceration of former president Jacob Zuma for being in contempt of the Constitutional Court.

This time the issues are different. Groups of South Africans, led mainly by anti-immigrants group March and March, are planning protests on June 30 to demand that undocumented immigrants leave South Africa.

Although March and March insists that its campaign is confined to opposing illegal immigration, some of the organisation’s activists have been uttering worrying statements that suggest that all foreigners, especially African foreigners, will be targeted, regardless of whether they have proper papers or not.

After initially dragging its feet, the government is now treating the matter seriously, embarking on a number of initiatives to ensure that the protests on the day do not spill into violence.

From President Cyril Ramaphosa down to police commissioners at regional and district level, the message is becoming clear: “Everyone is guaranteed the right to protest but not to take the law into their own hands.”

Authorities have been firm in stating that only the police and other law enforcement agencies have the power and responsibility to check people’s immigration documents. Anyone else doing so will be breaking the law.

Civil society has also come out to discourage violence and the breaking of the law.

Among the voices in this regard have been Zulu King Misuzulu and the leaders of the country’s taxi industry.

All these efforts, we hope, will help defuse tensions and ensure that the day of protests is without any incidents.

In 2021, more than 300 lives were lost because of the lack of preparation by the police and the country’s leadership in general.

With various sectors, including the private security industry, coming together to safeguard the country’s peace, we can only hope that even those who may have planned to turn the protests into something more sinister will be dissuaded from those plans.