President Cyril Ramaphosa says last year’s unrest in KwaZulu Natal and Gauteng painted a “disturbing picture” of the country’s security services, saying soon there will be changes in the leadership of agencies.
Ramaphosa on Monday released an expert panel report into the unrest, which saw the death of more than R350 people and more than R50 billion damage to the economy.
The report concluded that government’s initial handling of the unrest was inept, police operational planning was poor, there was poor coordination between the state security and intelligence services, and police were not always embedded in the communities they serve.
The panel also said that Cabinet must take overall responsibility for the events of July 2021.
“We will soon be announcing leadership changes in a number of security agencies to strengthen our security structures. We will begin immediately by filling critical vacancies and addressing positions affected by suspensions in the State Security Agency and Crime Intelligence,” he said, presenting the state of the nation address on Thursday night.
An additional 12,000 new cops would be employed, Ramaphosa said, adding that the staffing of the public order policing unit of the SAPS would be “brought to an appropriate level, with appropriate training courses in place”.
“Another area of immediate attention will be the re-establishment of community policing forums to improve relations and coordination between local police and residents of the areas they serve,” Ramaphosa said.
