No intelligence report ahead of July unrests, says Mawela
Gauteng police commissioner Elias Mawela told the South African Human Rights Commission they received no intelligence report ahead of the July unrest.
Mawela testified on Monday at the commission’s hearings into the unrest in Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal.
He told the commission that the intelligence community relied on flyers and posters from social media.
“For the July, when riots were underway in Gauteng, each and every bit of information gathered by the intelligence operators they will communicate to us through WhatsApp messages, or messages or telephones but remember what I said that for this massive unrest we never had any intelligence that suggested that we are going to have this massive unrest.
“At times we will receive just a piece of information based on the fliers, or posters on social media people will publicize that this is what they are going to do, it will be picked up and shared with us, even if it's not verified they bring it to our attention so that we can put together a contingency plan to mitigate such.”
He admitted that lack of intelligence was a weakness that impacted the deployment of police in the province.
“If we had intelligence it would’ve assisted in terms of deployment, at times we get a flier and we can’t ignore it. We have also realised one of the biggest weaknesses was lack of air support.
“We don’t have police helicopters which would’ve helped us to hover around those affected areas. Most of the helicopters were grounded due to mechanical problems.”
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