Police will ensure public safety throughout the country during the planned EFF-led national shutdown on Monday. The SA National Defence Force will be on standby, and where needed, private security will be coordinated.
That is according to Police Minister Bheki Cele, speaking after the justice, crime prevention, and security cluster meeting in Pretoria on Thursday.
Also on the ground will be “a big contingent of freshly trained public order police officers”.
The planned national shutdown is in protest against government’s failure to provide reliable electricity and the high unemployment rate.
The EFF, which is the country’s third-largest political party, is also calling on President Cyril Ramaphosa to step down.
Minister in the Presidency Khumbudzo Ntshavheni said the calls for a national shutdown were “reckless and irresponsible”.
“The alleged demands about loadshedding, high costs of living, and the high unemployment rate were addressed by the president during the State of the Nation Address on 9 February,” said Ntshavheni, adding that the appointment of a minister of electricity was one such intervention.
“The only demand behind this protest action was to remove Ramaphosa from office through unconstitutional means.
“A regime change through unconstitutional means will not be tolerated in South Africa. Anyone with ambitions to govern this country must wait and contest the 2024 elections.
“Attempts to cause disruption and disturbances in the country will be met with the full might of the law,” said Ntshavheni.
Regarding the proposed role of private security companies, Cele said the sector did not operate “somewhere in the jungle where they are not known”.
He said their activities were regulated by the Private Security Industry Regulation Authority, and the body’s CEO, advocate Manabela Chauke, reported to him.
“We want to assure everyone in the country that the 20th of March will be a normal business day,” said Cele.
“We want to reiterate to our international community that contrary to the pronouncements by those advocating for any disruption, all ports of entry – land, sea, and air – will be operational.
“Measures had been put in place to ensure that everyone who wants to go to work, travel for leisure and conduct business on this day does so in a safe and secure environment.
“Law-enforcement officers will be out in their numbers to protect them, whilst enforcing the law. Anyone who intimidates, stops anyone from going to work, barricades the roads and highways, and uses any form of violence to try and stop our people from going on with their lives will face the full might of the law.”
Justice and Correctional Services Minister Ronald Lamola said the security cluster had “strengthened the resolve” to respond to public order challenges based on previous experience, citing as examples the July unrest in 2021 and the Marikana massacre in 2012.
“We are ready to protect the rights of citizens in this country. Everyone has got a right to protest, but you do not have the right to trample on the rights of others and incite violence and so forth,” Lamola said.
“So, the constitution would be our guiding document and as a cluster, we have all the capacity to respond to the challenges that the country is facing with regards to issues of safety. The constitutional right of all citizens will be protected.”
Minister of Defence Thandi Modise said a weakness in the security cluster has been the failure to monitor and control social media.
“For a long time, we have allowed people to use social media to plan and intimidate, and we have not followed up,” Modise said.
“We want to assure you that this time, we will not let it go. That is a weakness that we will accept, and that is a weakness that we are in the process of remedying.”
Modise said the defence force was “on standby”, noting that the police had the capacity as the services continued to recruit youngsters and “the minister does have the reserves”.
“South Africans can be assured that the capacity is there, that they will be protected, that they will not be violated, that any business that wishes to open must open.”
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