Tough lessons learned from 2021 July unrest - SAPS

DURBAN - Three years after the country’s security forces came under fire over their shoddy handling of the July unrest, which left more than 300 people dead, the South African Police Service said important lessons had been learned.

Police said they had sought better communication within the cluster, to capacitate the force, and had become more responsive to threats, including ones made via social media.

In 2021, police failed to prevent the widespread looting of businesses, arson and damage to infrastructure.

IN PHOTOS: 2021 July Unrest

The riots also saw the killing of 36 black people by an alleged vigilante group in Phoenix, north of Durban.

The 2021 July unrest represented a stain on South Africa’s young democracy, one where sentiments expressed pointed to a security cluster ill-prepared to deal with the devastating events that followed.

This was echoed during the Human Rights Commission’s hearing into the tragedy, which showed a lack of resources left the police unable to contain the widespread looting.

The police’s top brass also raised their own concerns, which included a lack of cannons and rubber bullets.

SAPS spokesperson Athlenda Mathe said that tough lessons had been learnt.

"In the past year, 5,000 public order police officers were trained in crowd management and deployed to serve in the public order police unit."

Mathe said that a further R150 million had been allocated to the police in the last financial year to bolster crowd management and training.