KZN Premier: 26 killed as looting, violence continues in KZN

KZN Premier Sihle Zikalala held a virtual press briefing on Tuesday morning, July 13, following President Cyril Ramaphosa’s address on Monday night.

He echoed the president’s stance and strongly affirmed the call for the return of peace, calm and stability in the province and country.

“We ask every citizen to join hands, no matter the difficulties, let us avoid an eye for an eye confrontation that can only turn our world blind. There can be no denying that as a province we are going through a lot of pain and difficulty. The past few days have been extremely challenging in our body politic. We have seen violent incidents which, from the beginning, appear to have arisen as a response to the incarceration of former President Jacob Zuma,” he said.

He said the events unfolding are an unprecedented and extremely disturbing situation, as it poses a threat to human lives with the potential to destabilise the economy, at a delicate time when the country is trying to recover from the severe damage caused by the Covid-19.

“These episodes of violence are inflicting many lasting scars. The latest fatalities confirmed by the Security Cluster in KwaZulu-Natal as of this morning stands at 26. These were people that were killed during stampedes as protesters ran riot in areas including Umlazi, KwaMashu, Inanda, Phoenix, uMgungundlovu and northern KwaZulu-Natal. As of last night, law-enforcement agencies had arrested 187 suspects,” Zikalala said.

“The violent protests have had a negative impact on the economy of the province. This is largely because the protests have targeted key economic centres and infrastructure including shopping malls, trucks and major arterial routes such as the N2 and the N3.”

“More significantly, this violence has crippled our small and emerging businesses. Hawkers cannot sell because cities are shutdown, our fellow sisters and brothers in the taxi industry stand to lose their vehicles due to repossession by banks. Workers are losing work because industries and places of work are not operational.”

“The sectors severely impacted include the freight and the retail industries. However, other sectors were not spared. Many companies had to suspend their operations due to the inability to transport material and stock.”

“These incidents have the potential to dampen investor confidence and also derail our economic recovery efforts. The social costs of the damage might come in a form of increased unemployment and poverty in years to come,” he said.

The premier said estimates of the destruction to both private and public infrastructure amount to no less than R1 billion, which he considered a very conservative estimate.

“One of the sectors hardest-hit by the civil unrest has been healthcare, both in the public and private sectors. The blockading of key infrastructure as well as provincial and local routes has made public mobility difficult. Many hospital staff who were working during night shift last night were unable to travel.”

“Matters have also been worsened by the non-availability of public transport. This must be understood clearly that the public transport has decided to stop its operations because they are fearful that their vehicles will be damaged.”

“As a result of all of this, a number of hospitals, Community Health Centres and clinics across the province have been operating on skeletal staff, with many nurses, doctors, allied health workers and support staff, including general staff workers, unable to report for work, he said, adding that some clinics had to be closed as a result of the unrest. Zikalala said most municipalities within the province have been adversely affected by the civil unrest. He said delivery of services has also been halted.

“We are hard at work to ensure that we stop this situation. Yesterday, we convened a special Executive Council Meeting where the Justice, Crime, Prevention and Security Cluster under the leadership of the MEC for Transport, Community Safety and Liaison, Peggy Nkonyeni presented a detailed plan that seeks to address the current situation. We further engaged with the leadership of SANTACO.”

“These meetings took stock of the situation. The recommendations made by all partners will form part of our comprehensive response to the protests. We will be intensifying engagements with community structures on the ground. As the provincial government, we have directed that all municipalities must operationalise Operation Sukuma Sakhe to identify risk and threats in their areas and report those before they even happen.”

“We also activated co-ordination at district levels where our mayors and councillors will work with all stakeholders and assist law enforcement agencies to attend to threats, protests that are engulfing our areas,” he said.

Zikalala said the deployment of the South African National Defence Force came as a result of engagements within the security cluster.

“The SANDF will work in support of the SAPS. Their deployment will be supported by the Intelligence Coordinating Committee which includes Crime Intelligence, Defence Intelligence and State Security.”

“We understand that the calls for the release of former President Jacob Zuma from his current incarceration in Estcourt as the main cause of these disturbances. What may have begun as an understandable cause, supported by many, has now degenerated into criminality,” Zikalala said.