Gauteng was ready for looting, unrest - Mazibuko
Gauteng Community Safety MEC Faith Mazibuko has told the provincial legislature's committee on community safety that law enforcement in Gauteng was warned and ready for the looting and unrest that took place two weeks ago.
A total of 337 people died, 78 in Gauteng and 258 in KwaZulu-Natal.
Police officers in both Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal were overwhelmed until assistance arrived from the South African National Defence Force (SANDF).
Speaking in Sebokeng on Thursday, Mazibuko claimed Gauteng was ready.
"When we first got the intel, these things were happening via WhatsApp, when we first heard from the community of the plan which is coming to Gauteng, police through crime intelligence and state security agency, they were able to convene urgently and look through all the videos, listening to the audio's and posters.”
The police's Brigadier David Bender confirmed that an operational meeting was held on Sunday, 11 July.
A total of 2 926 members have been deployed in hot spot areas across Gauteng, alongside 499 SANDF members which were deployed on the 13th of July, and 1322 metro police officers.
In total, Gauteng has 4747 law enforcement deployed across the province on a daily basis until July 31st.
Mazibuko indicated that about 300 police officers from Gauteng were deployed in KwaZulu-Natal.
"Not any police officer can deal with crowd control, there are those who are trained specifically for that. Police carry live ammunition so they cannot just go into Sebokeng Plaza and take out their guns and start shooting. It means they also have to await these ones who deal with crowd control because they carry stun grenades, rubber bullets, and teargas. The ordinary station police cannot use that on people because it is live ammunition.
"In fact as Gauteng, we were not caught napping because we did get this intel that there are audios and posters. What is good is that we have a community in Gauteng that also shares information. Even members of the opposition were sharing information which was elevated to crime intelligence and state security.”
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