Johannesburg - Former acting Gauteng police commissioner Major-General Thomas “Tommy” Mthombeni has told the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) that despite not receiving any intelligence reports alerting them to the 2021 July unrest, Gauteng police did everything they could to lessen the blow on the province.
Mthombeni has been giving evidence at the second leg of the SAHRC hearings investigating the unrest that erupted in July last year, shortly after former president Jacob Zuma was incarcerated.
At that time, Mthombeni was standing in for provincial commissioner Lieutenant-General Elias Mawela, who was on extended leave after medical procedures.
He told the commission that he had not received any reports warning them about the looming threat of unrest.
He said he did receive some reports from intelligence agencies between June 14 and 29 but none related to the unrest. Between June 29 and July 10, Mthombeni said he received no reports at all from the intelligence agencies, but he did see unofficial messages circulating about the planned unrest. He said at the time his focus was on roadblocks to prevent interprovincial travel as SA was on level 4 of lockdown.
In explaining how the police in Gauteng approached the handling of the unrest, Mthombeni said they collaborated with the community, taxi associations and private security companies to stop the unrest and looting.
“For Gauteng, we tried what we could under those circumstances. It could have been worse,” said Mthombeni.
He detailed how the police were heavily outnumbered at the Pan-Africa Mall in Alexandra. He said he saw about 3 000 people close to the mall on the day of the looting while only 80 police officers, among them public order police, had been deployed.
When questioned on whether he took any responsibility for the failures of the police during the unrest, Mthombeni said the Gauteng police made a number of arrests, including some police officers who were found in possession of stolen items.
“I outlined clearly how we operated and how I was on the ground ensuring the affected areas were supported,” he said.
The SAHRC is expected to continue with the National Investigative Hearings into the July 2021 unrest, which erupted mainly in KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng.
The unrest caused billions of rands in damage to infrastructure and businesses and hundreds of lives were lost during the violence that erupted.
The SAHRC said this leg of the hearings will focus on Gauteng, however, more evidence will also be presented from the perspective of KwaZulu-Natal.
The Hearing Panel is due to hear testimony from survivors, various community members, as well as industry players in commerce, private security and state officials.
Political Bureau