Johannesburg – The president of South Africa has finally made an appearance on the ground in Kwa-Zulu Natal at a mall in KwaMashu, since violence and looting reared its ugly head in the province which started a week ago.
Ramaphosa said that he has been in daily and hourly communications with the premiers and ministers about the situation that is currently unfolding in the country.
“Government is extremely concerned about what happened here. All these incidents were instigated, by people who planned it and coordinated it. Police have a line of sight with how it all took place. We are going after them. We have identified them,” Ramaphosa warned.
“So much damage has been done to the country. 95 people alone in KZN lost their lives. The economic damage has been done, confidence from internal and external investors, has been severly dented,” Ramaphosa added.
The president said that security forces have tried their very best to try and stop what has taken place.
“Yes we could have done better but we were overwhelmed from what happened. We did not get into a situation that resulted in a situation with more mayhem. Our security forces did the very best they could. We regret what took place and it is not what we want to see happening in our country,” Ramaphosa further said.
“We are rolling out our security forces, 25 000 soldiers have now been deployed. They will soon occupy KZN and Gauteng,” Ramaphosa further said.
“Ordinary citizens felt they needed to defend their areas and assets. We welcome that ordinary citizens are working with security forces. This is an assault on the democratic SA. We applaud them for standing up.”
He further said, “The democratic state is what they are defending and their assets, they are joining hands with us. Many of our people are working together, the business community and religious community have already started cleaning up the cities.”
Ramaphosa said that the intentions of the instigators behind the attacks are failing as people are coming together.
Phoenix
Ramaphosa said that he would not be visiting the hard-hit area of Phoenix in Durban
He said that local leaders and the minister of Police will go to Phoenix. He said he has to attend an urgent cabinet meeting.
Ramaphosa also applauded the former president of South Africa, Jacob Zuma for complying with the law and the courts.
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