Cape Town – People using protests for criminal activities, incitement or to perpetrate violence will be identified, arrested and charged, Minister of State Security Siyabonga Cwele has warned.
In giving this warning on Tuesday, he acknowledged that the country’s Constitution gave South Africans the right to peacefully protest. Most of the protests in South Africa were very peaceful; however some of them tended to be violent and disruptive, he said, which led to intimidation, and loss of life.
Tabling his Budget Vote in Parliament Minister Cwele said: “Let us be up front and loudly state that in terms of our laws, it is a crime to incite or participate in acts of violence during protests. Both the organizers and participants must take full responsibility for the consequences of such violent action, including destruction of life and property. As a state we can no longer tolerate such abuse,” Minister Cwele said.
Referring to President Zuma’s 2009 State of the Nation Address, he said that the President had called on the security service to redouble their efforts and restore the authority of the State.
“We have heard the President’s call. The whole security cluster is increasing its capacity to focus on this scourge. We now have a plan and are ready to deploy the full capacity of the democratic state to identify, prevent or arrest and swiftly prosecute those who undermine our Bill of Rights by engaging in acts of violence. The ‘Eye of the Nation’ is watching,” Minister Cwele said.
He called on all South Africans to join hands with the security forces and law enforcement agencies to ensure that “these perpetrators” didn’t prevail.
Illegal trading
Minister Cwele said that the illicit economy, such as illegal trading in cigarettes, mining, copper theft, and trading in goods, was undermining South Africa’s real economy.
This illicit trade obstructed economic development, undermined government policy and the rule of law. It also supported corrupt practices, funded organized crime, undermined investment in legitimate manufacturing, employment and innovation.
“The sale of illicit cigarettes and tobacco products, has, for example, increased over the past four years. By the end of 2011 the illegal sale of cigarettes was more than 25 percent of market sales in South Africa. The estimated loss to the South African fiscus is R4 billion in unpaid taxes per year.”
In addition, retailers lost R7 billion in turnover and R750 million in annual profits. In employment terms, this meant a loss of almost 10 000 jobs in the tobacco industry in the past 10 years.
An interdepartmental national task team comprising of the South African Police Service, SSA, SARS, Asset Forfeiture Unit and Financial Intelligence Centre, National Prosecuting Authority has been formed to deal with this. “We expect to see positive results as soon as a result of this intervention.”
Militant groups
Minister Cwele said that militant groups such as Boka Haram in Nigeria, Tuareg Militia in Mali and Al-Qaeda were destabilizing West Africa. In North Africa, the proliferation of small arms, availability of well-trained fighters, weakened regional security structures, while Al-Shabaab was determined to wage a jihad (holy war) against countries that were part of the African Union Mission in Somalia.
In Central Africa, the conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Central African Republic meant a resurgence of instability was being experienced.
“We are concerned with the deteriorating security and humanitarian situation in the Central African Republic. As a nation, we may not turn a blind eye on the evolving humanitarian crisis. The primary objective is to urgently restore security in order to allow inflows of humanitarian assistance and economic reconstruction.”
To achieve this, South Africa would work through the regional body, the Economic Community of Central African States, African Union and United Nations. – SAnews.gov.za
