Deputy minister of human settlements David Mahlobo. (Delwyn Verasamy/M&G)
Deputy minister of human settlements David Mahlobo on Saturday proposed strengthening the state’s security apparatus to contain instability and prevent a repeat of the deadly unrest that rocked the country last July.
He said investment in security had been declining despite the increase in population numbers and this undermined the state’s ability to respond to threats.
“There are people who are ideologically opposed to the ANC for the past 28 years and they want to use our own mistakes around the issues of governance and failure of delivery to say, take the ANC out of power.”
He added that those intent on overthrowing the party included people from within its ranks.
Briefing media at the sixth national ANC policy conference, Mahlobo said the party agreed that the violence that claimed 354 lives in July 2021 was a thwarted attempt to overthrow the state.
“We have done an assessment around the issues that can cause unrest like the one in July last year and it has been a characterisation in the ANC that it was an attempted insurrection.”
Mahlobo said the state responded by naming a panel of experts to mull the causes of the unrest and had moved to implement its recommendation, in particular, that steps be taken to stabilise the country’s security forces.
“Some of those recommendations that are mentioned in that particular report, we are ensuring that they must be implemented, we are supporting them, especially the stabilisation of security services, because there was a lot of instability at the top level and you could see that a number of appointments have been made in these various institutions.”
He singled out “issues around coordination” as the biggest failing during the violence, saying there was a “disjuncture” in the state’s response as officials were pointing fingers at each other.
Police minister Bheki Cele and then national police commissioner Khehla Sitole were publicly at odds over the handling of the crisis that erupted after the arrest of former president Jacob Zuma for contempt of court, sweeping through KwaZulu-Natal and parts of Gauteng.
Pressed about the findings of the Zondo commission on the subversion of the intelligence structures, Mahlobo said these must be professionalised and the recommendations in the report on state capture be implemented.
All those implicated in the report must approach the party’s integrity committee, he said.
But he also suggested that the ANC follow the model of China’s governing party and establish its own internal anti-corruption body – a proposal that seems contrived to sidestep the recommendations of chief justice Raymond Zondo by putting in place a parallel structure to deal with corruption in its ranks.
“Corruption is one issue that has caused a lot of damage to the ANC when it comes to the trust deficit. We are also saying that, on fighting corruption, the ANC must also attend to matters of capacity.”
A well-resourced, multi-disciplinary, independent agency was needed to tackle the scourge.
“But internally, within the organisation, we are learning from our friends the Chinese Communist Party that whilst the ANC must strengthen its integrity committee and resource it, the ANC should consider the possibility of creating its own anti-corruption agency, a commission in the ANC, in the form of the communist party, that will be delegated to look at these particular issues.”
On immigration, Mahlobo said it was a pressing concern, in part because the party believed it had posed a threat to stability and had contributed to the downfall of governments.
Mahlobo said the government is considering amending its agreement with the United Nations 1951 convention on refugees in an attempt to shore up its porous borders.
‘’We know that our borders have been very porous for a long time…. We want to manage our own systems and the issues we face,” he said.
“The proposal is not to withdraw completely from the UN convention on refugees but to amend our participation as other countries have done. We have also noticed that governing parties often lose power around this issue.
“We want to manage our own systems and the issues we face.”
Questioned about the invasion of Ukraine, Mahlobo said the conflict “must end” and noted that it was impacting international trade and driving up prices in Africa.
He reiterated the party line that the Russian war on its neighbour and former member of the Soviet union was provoked by the eastwards expansion of NATO.
“We are very clear. It has been discussed in our commission and in our commission there are a number of recommendations we are making to the plenary,” he said.
“One of the recommendations is that the adversaries that have actually led to the reaction by the Russian federation, themselves need to desist, [to] respect that the issues of expansion to the Russian borders and the issue of admission of certain states at the centre, it causes problems.”
He took issue with what he termed unilateral intervention in the conflict.
“We are then saying that the international laws and convention, including the UN, must be the only body that must be respected so that we can convene and deal with these issues, because you could see there is the biggest temptation of acting unilaterally by other states on various grounds, whether it is national security or national interest.”
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