Army not being deployed to Pretoria, says minister

Defence Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula says there is no need to deploy the army to SA’s strife-torn capital city.

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Cape Town - There was no need to deploy the South African army to the country’s capital city as yet, Defence Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula said on Tuesday.

Briefing journalists from Pretoria as chair of government’s justice, crime prevention and security cluster (JCPS), Mapisa-Nqakula said law enforcement agencies were out in full force to contain violent protests which have broken out in various areas of Pretoria since the ANC announced that former cabinet minister Thoko Didiza would stand as mayoral candidate for the ruling party in the upcoming local government elections.

 

“The situation is assessed on a daily basis. Every morning, every evening, the natjoints [national joint operations and intelligence structure] will come together and asses developments in the country. Depending on the outcome of that assessment, depending on the report they will present to the structures that be, then a decision will be taken [on deploying the army],” the minister said.

Mapisa-Nqakula said since the defence force was the country’s “last line of defence”, government would first exhaust the capacity of law enforcement agencies, more specifically the SA Police Service.

“For now we have police deployed everywhere in the country and whatever information we have and whatever investigations will be conducted will be intelligence driven,” she said.

Mapisa-Nqakula said those responsible for the anarchy which has seen roads closed, at least 19 buses burnt by protesters, and businesses closed as a result of the violent unrest, would face the full might of the law.

“This is the capital city…of the Republic of South Africa and there is no way the law enforcement agencies will allow the kind of anarchy that has happened in the past 24 hours to continue…,” the minister said.

Mapisa-Nqakula described the scenes which had played out on the streets of various areas of Pretoria as the work of “hooligans”, “anarchists”, and “gangsters” who were hell bent on hijacking protests of residents with “maybe legitimate concerns”.

ANA