The Thabo Mbeki Foundation says the events of the last week, with rampant looting and damage to infrastructure, cannot be accepted as incidental.
The foundation said the country was living through the impact of counter revolutionary insurgency “that has long been germinating in the bowles of what we commonly called state capture”.
“The hallmarks of state capture are the deliberate and systematic denuding of state capacity that we have witnessed at SARS, SOEs and the weakening of all arms of law enforcement agencies.”
The foundation issued a statement on Friday following a week of looting and unrest which affected mainly areas in KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng.
There was widespread damage to property and 212 people have died in incidents linked to the unrest. The police were investigating hundreds of cases linked to the deaths.
The foundation said these events can not be viewed as incidental and that warnings of war and civil unrest were made.
“The pressing socio-economic conditions of our people and the recent arrest of former president Jacob Zuma have served as a set to mount an offensive against the state and the constitutional democratic edifice on which it is built.
The messages spread through social media were designed so that when the conditions die down, the nation would be left hopeless, the foundation said.
“In many ways, pessimism will strike and the human dignity that we have all strived for will become but a fleeting dream,” it said.
The foundation called for calm and for the violence to end.
“We once again implore the government and all social partners urgently to get together to design and implement, medium and long-term economic recovery plans,” it said.
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