Faizel Patel – 10/08/2021
An Africa analyst at the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data project says the deadly insurrection in Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal remains unproven.
Jasmine Opperman was speaking to Radio Islam about Parliament’s Joint Standing Committee on Intelligence’s approval for an inquiry into allegations of intelligence failures by the intelligence services.
The inquiry follows the recent deadly unrest which occurred in KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng during which more than 300 people died during the rampant riots and looting.
President Cyril Ramaphosa labelled the violence an insurrection as he doubled down to describing it as organised chaos.
Opperman says the “insurrection” narrative still remains unproven.
“It serves very specific political interests. I think it’s a complete over simplification as we have to make a distinction between your political instigators and your economic beneficiaries that simply spiraled out of control and I think it’s time to acknowledge the realities of our social structures and shortcomings.”
Opperman says government must make a distinction of what transpired in the first few days of the unrest and what happened thereafter.
“Clearly following the incarceration one could see there were instigators taking and having some level of control directing actions, directing and towards specific targets. But they quickly started losing control and that is when we had this spiral into the abyss I would like to call it.”
Opperman says to get to the “heart” of the unrest, investigations should look deep into the African National Congress (ANC) and the people who would have used this so called “insurrection” to strengthen their position with suspended party secretary general Ace Magashule’s name at the forefront.
Listen to the interview with Jasmine Opperman
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