Honourable Chairperson,
Honourable Minister and Deputy Minister,
Honourable Premiers, Honourable Members,
And Fellow South Africans, Good Afternoon.
The 13th of July 2021 will stand out as the day when South Africans in every corner of this beautiful country were left breathless by the unpreparedness of our security cluster, and especially, the South African Police Department; in the face of the worst politically driven protests and unprecedented streak of crime since democratisation.
As a loyal and patriotic South African, I never regarded or treated this as a political opportunity to take a shot at the ANC’s ability to govern and in this case police.
The potential consequences of what we witnessed in those hours that extended into days, when our economy was pillaged and the lives of people were in grave danger, are not matters that any political party should utilise to score political points. But let us not be mistaken, we all had a lingering fear that our community, and our neighbourhood, could be next to feel the brunt of an unprepared security cluster.