After five days of uninterrupted chaos tagged under the banner ‘Shutdown South Africa‘, the Justice, Crime Prevention and Security (JCPS) Cluster has released an intelligence report that sums up the shocking events witnessed worldwide, in numbers.
SAPS intelligence report: SA shutdown in numbers
Police Minister Bheki Cele was part of the cluster media briefing held on Tuesday morning and, despite the state of affairs in the shutdown riots, he appeared optimistic that law enforcement had the situation under control.
“The current situation on the ground is under strong surveillance and we will ensure that it does not deteriorate any further,” he said
Contrary to this claim, things have hardly looked less chaotic on Tuesday, with large-scale looting observed at the Game distribution warehouse, in Newlands East, as well as other areas in KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) and Gauteng.
Still, the security cluster is adamant that things are under control and that more work is being done to quell the unrest.
“We cannot allow anyone to make a mockery of our democratic state and we have instructed the law enforcement agencies to double their efforts the stop the violence and to increase deployment on the ground,” the cluster noted in a statement.
Based on the statistics listed in the cluster’s Intelligence report, these figures paint a picture of the extent of violence witnessed in the past five days.
Arrests made thus far
According to the security cluster, a total of 757 suspects were arrested in KZN and Gauteng between Friday 9 July and Monday 12 July 2021.
Of these, 304 were nabbed in KZN, while 453 cases were registered in Gauteng.
Deaths and injuries reported
There seems to be a discrepancy with regards to the casualty count related to the shutdown riots. According to the cluster, a total of 10 deaths were reported in both provinces, four in KZN and six in Gauteng. However, the figure is much higher if KZN Premier Sihle Zikalala’s tally is to be included.
According to Zikalala, at least 26 deaths related to the unrest have been reported in the province. In this regard, the total death toll, not including Tuesday’s tally which remains unconfirmed, would rise to 32.
What about the extent of the damage caused?
As many businesses wrap their heads around the events of the past five days, the true extent of the damage caused by this never-before-seen level of looting has yet to be summed up.
With regards to public and private infrastructure damage alone, Premier Zikalala indicated that restoration costs are expected to be no less than R1 billion.
There has yet to be a full report on the amount of money lost to the violence in both provinces.