By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
During the month of July 2021, unrest broke out and swept through the country, especially in Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal.
The impact of the unrest and its associated activities have been devastating for the country’s economy, which has already been significantly affected by the Covid-19 pandemic and further attributed huge financial losses to businesses – small, medium and large – some of which will not be able to recover and re-trade resulting in wide scale job losses.
The unrest accordingly exacerbated, amongst other things, inequality between certain communities, unemployment levels, poverty, hunger, and food insecurity.
Minister of Trade and Industry Ebrahim Patel, who was appearing at the South African Human Rights Commission hearings in Sandton on Friday, said there were lessons to be learnt from what happened in the July riots.
He said it was a law and order failure, but the context in which it took place was deeply and profoundly influenced by socio-economic factors.
Thousands of businesses were destroyed during the riots and this left a R50 billion hole in the economy.
When the commission asked what his role was as a minister, he said: “Our job is to find ways of promoting levels of industrialisation of the productive sector of the economy.”
He said that what happened in July last year was one of the most challenging and difficult moments in our democracy. He also said that he welcomed and acknowledged what the commission was trying to bring about through the hearings.
“The normative frame that the commission is bringing here is to look at the impact of what happened on the constitutional rights of citizens. Most importantly for us to have some learnings and lessons of what happened,” Patel said.
Answering to the questions during the July unrest hearings, he said they had prepared submissions in the hope that the commissioners would go through them.
He believed that there were people with an agenda that had nothing to do with transformation, nothing to do with improving the lives of ordinary South Africans, who exploited the frustrations and anger of people.
“When people are hungry and they don’t have the opportunity, they are more susceptible to calls to act outside of the constitution order,” he added.
The minister agreed with the commission that the unrest really damaged the country in terms of economy and infrastructure and that it would take time to recover.
Livestream Video Below:
Video Courtesy of SAHRC.