While fears of widespread unrest ahead of Tuesday’s planned nationwide demonstrations prompted heightened security across South Africa, police say Gauteng remained largely peaceful, with only isolated incidents requiring intervention.
Speaking during a media briefing on Wednesday morning, Deputy National Commissioner for Policing Lieutenant General Tebello Mosikili said a total of 120 marches took place across the country on Tuesday.
Of those, 108 demonstrations remained peaceful, while only 12 required law enforcement intervention following incidents of unrest. Gauteng recorded 12 peaceful marches and one incident that required police intervention.
“Our country remained relatively stable,” Mosikili said, thanking march organisers, participants and law enforcement agencies for ensuring that the overwhelming majority of demonstrations remained peaceful.
She said opportunistic criminal elements had attempted to exploit the demonstrations, but police responded swiftly to maintain law and order.
“While there were opportunistic criminal elements that sought to exploit the situation, they were identified and dealt with swiftly and decisively by law enforcement,” Mosikili said.
Overnight, additional police reinforcements were deployed to parts of Gauteng, the Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal, the Free State and the Western Cape in response to isolated incidents of looting and criminality. Police said the affected areas had since been stabilised and remained under constant monitoring.
Nationally, more than 900 people were arrested during Tuesday’s operations. According to police, the majority of arrests were made during law enforcement operations conducted alongside the demonstrations and involved illegal foreigners, looting, public violence, harbouring illegal immigrants, business robberies at spaza shops and other offences.
In Gauteng, more than 82 people were arrested for offences including looting, public violence and contraventions of the Immigration Act.
Pretoria’s planned march from Church Square to Sunnyside Police Station proceeded under heavy police and Tshwane Metro Police Department (TMPD) presence, with authorities closely monitoring the route throughout the day.
Mosikili praised the coordinated response by SAPS, metro police departments, private security companies, Community Policing Forums and other stakeholders, saying their cooperation had played a key role in maintaining public order.
Although the planned demonstrations have concluded, police said operations remain active, and officers will continue to monitor developments in the coming days while intensifying efforts to ensure compliance with South Africa’s immigration laws.
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