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The Justice Crime Prevention and Security (JCPS) Cluster is dismayed by the renewed violence and criminality accompanying public protests in different parts of the North West Province. It is incorrect and unacceptable that people should turn to violence, loot shops and destroy property in the name of their demands. We condemn in the strongest possible terms the rise in looting and destruction of property as well as all forms of violence. Such lawlessness will not be allowed to continue anywhere in the country.

South Africa is a Constitutional democracy and the laws of our country should be upheld by all. Law enforcement agencies have been deployed to the affected communities to work together with communities to ensure that the ongoing acts of lawlessness are brought to an immediate end.

The National Joint Operational and Intelligence Structure (NATJOINTS) continues to monitor the situation on the ground throughout the North West Province and deployment of security agencies will continue to be beefed up to ensure that both people’s lives and property is safeguarded.

The JCPS Cluster urges all individuals involved in the violence to immediately to desist from the use of violence as an avenue for airing their grievances. We further call on communities to raise grievances within the bounds of the law. Those who decide to exercise their constitutional right to protest are advised to do so in a peaceful and orderly manner.

Issued by Department of Justice and Constitutional Development