Cele: July riots meant to 'cripple the system'

Cele: July riots meant to 'cripple the system'

Police Minister Bheki Cele says although the arrest of former president Jacob Zuma was one of the driving factors behind the July unrest, he believes the violence was also an attempted insurrection.


Bheki Cele
SAHRC/Youtube


He says some areas that were targeted had nothing to do with poverty or hunger, but instead people wanted to cripple the system.


Cele on Monday testified before the South African Human Rights Commission's hearing into the July unrest that rocked KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng. 


"There was information about busting the oil line from Durban to Johannesburg.


"I got the other one morning of burning the hospital with patients because there was this thing of creasing the anger besides looting and all that.


"So many elements that were set up to make this ungovernability."


The hearings are expected to continue until 4 March.

LISTEN TO more news Jacaranda
Jacaranda FM

Show's Stories