Justice Minister Ronald Lamola wants those behind the July 2021 unrest to be brought to book and held accountable for their actions.
Lamola was giving evidence on Thursday before the South African Human Rights Commission in Sandton.
The violence and looting left more than 340 people dead and cost the economy R50 billion.
In his evidence, Lamola told the Human Rights Commission that their job was to ensure they protected the constitutional rights of the people. But he wants those behind the looting and violence to be held accountable for their actions.
“The political leadership of the Department of Justice and Correctional Services, as a minister, is to protect the constitutional rights of citizens, maintain the independence of the judiciary, reinforcing confidence in the legal constitution, carrying out law reform into greater social justice, the administration of justice as a whole,” Lamola said.
He was responding to the Human Rights Commission hearings about his role as a minister of justice and how he had played his part during the unrest.
He said the July unrest had broadly affected the country negatively. The loss of life, the looting of shops and the vandalism of shopping malls could be viewed as multiple crises and challenges facing South Africa, and they, including the disruption of distribution centres and warehouses, had a devastating impact on the economy.
He said that the civil unrest disarranged the country’s economy, negatively affecting the livelihoods of many, and the closing of businesses had also resulted in many job losses.
“We have all learned valuable lessons from the July unrest. This necessitated the Department of Justice to issue directives that will enable speedy processing of accused persons that emanated from the unrest due to a huge volume of people that were arrested which the system had to absorb,” he said.
He said the case management team notified them that unrest cases were classified from July 7 to August 14.
He also said their understanding as ministers was that there was a civil unrest happening across the country which affected operations.
However, he told the commission that they had been updating people that former president Jacob Zuma had been arrested in a respectful and dignified manner.
He stated that as the Justice Department their situation was different from SAPS and the SANDF who were literally on the ground dealing with the unrest. He said their department had to prepare for the arrests so that the court system and prosecutors were ready to do their job.
About the racial attacks that happened in Phoenix during the unrest, the minister said: “Firstly, it’s a bit difficult for me to answer the question directly because I’m aware that there are some cases that are still before our courts where such issues are being ventilated.”
He assured the commission that whoever was involved in the July unrest must be brought to book and account for their actions because a lot of damage had been done to the economy and infrastructure.
Political Bureau