GOOD statement by Brett Herron,
GOOD: Secretary-General
07 February 2022
The Expert Panel’s report on the July 2021 “insurrection” attempt, released today, confirms the abundantly obvious while being disappointingly thin on accountability.
The events were organised by hidden hands, with inside knowledge of the State’s weaknesses, sparked by supporters of former President Zuma supporters, and fuelled by the dire socio-economic conditions that create a highly volatile South Africa, the panel found.
Now that that’s been settled, when can we expect some high-profile arrests?
In July and August 2021 I handed electronic evidence to the Crimes Against the State unit of the Hawks. This information was shared with me by an informant within the ANC. The initial evidence related to three WhatsApp Groups that were established in KwaZulu-Natal, after former President Zuma was incarcerated.
Messages, voice-notes and videos posted to these groups confirmed that the events were politically motivated with the intention of over-turning the state. Many of the posts were triumphant in response to some of the worst violence and destruction witnessed in this country since the end of apartheid.
In August 2021 I submitted additional evidence to the Hawks including posts to a WhatsApp group called “Joburg Activists Home” that appears to have been set up prior to Zuma’s arrest.
Among the messages on this group is this voice-note: “Commanders and comrades, beloved South African citizens let us go to the streets let us go to the streets and make this country ungovernable, let’s just go to the streets. They can’t manage us, trust me I know they can’t, they don’t have manpower they can’t manage us, there should be smoke all over.”
This evidence corroborates the findings of the Expert Panel that the organisers were aware of the limits of the state’s capacity – in particular the capacity of police – to adequately respond.
The Panel correctly states that people are desperate and fed-up with government.
South Africa is a tinder-box. Too many South Africans have grown socially and economically alienated to the point that they feel they have nothing to lose.
The report correctly finds that:
“Most important of all, government, at all levels, must seriously attend to the socio-economic challenges facing the country. We will be failing in our duty if we fail to express the profound frustration from, in particular the civil society, business and security sector delegations we met, that the government is not paying sufficient attention to this matter.”
The Report is our last wake-up call to fix the many things we continue to speak about and make no progress on. These include the hollowing out of the state and its security institutions, the laissez faire conduct of those who are appointed to the highest levels of government but fail to attend to the security of our nation when that is their job, the damage that is being done to our people and our state by the failure of the ANC to address its internal battles, and the complete failure of our country to address poverty, inequality and unemployment.
The Report screams a warning. Stop the endless promises and start fixing our country for the benefit of the most vulnerable.
Media enquiries:
Brett Herron, GOOD: Secretary-General
Cell: 0825183264
Email: bretth@forgood.org.za
Samkelo Mgobozi, GOOD: Media Manager
Cell: 0792315977 (whatsapp)/0829684021 (calls)
Email: samm@forgood.org.za