By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
Hawks’ Lieutenant-General Godfrey Lebeya testified at the South African Human Rights Commission’s (SAHRC) investigative hearing into the July unrest.
Lebeya had been tasked with identifying instigators and other individuals of interest.
During his testimony, the Hawks chief confirmed another instigator had been arrested on Tuesday, 30 November, bringing the total number of cases to 25.
Lebeya said the suspect will be charged within 48 hours.
He provided the commission with a breakdown of the cases the DPCI was investigating, which included 12 criminal dockets and 12 inquiry dockets.
“There are 12 criminal dockets, seven of these matters are already in court. Cases are almost at a final stage. Five of these are still under investigation. You register a criminal docket when you are satisfied there are elements of crime that reflect the initial information you had.”
Lebeya said the investigations did not implicate any members of the police, the military or the State Security Agency (SSA).
He said he was unaware of any member of crime intelligence who may be implicated in the unrest — evidence which had been provided by police national commissioner Lt Gen Khehla Sitole on Tuesday.
Sitole was questioned regarding an intelligence report about the unrest, which Police Minister Bheki Cele said he had not received.
The national commissioner told the commission not all intelligence reports had been sent to Cele, as he “picks out what is relevant for the briefing of the minister”.
He said he “personally did not receive a report relating to modus operandi pertaining to the violence” prior to the outbreak of the riots back in July.
Sitole didn’t even not know how many people were killed in Phoenix, KwaZulu-Natal, during the July civil unrest.
The unrest claimed 359 lives and caused an estimated R50-billion in damage in Gauteng and Kwazulu-Natal respectively.