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Security companies, community policing forums and the police have drawn up contingency plans to stop looting and public violence. (Guillem Sartorio/AFP)
AFRICAN NATIONAL CONGRESS

Fearing a repeat of 2021 riots, Durban prepares for EFF shutdown

Security companies, community policing forums and the police have drawn up contingency plans to stop looting and public violenc

  • Paddy Harper
3 min read
A Congolese man holds a banner during a demonstration against xenophobia in Johannesburg, on March 26, 2022 organized by the activist movement against xenophobic attacks Kopanang Africa. Kopanang is a Sotho words meaning “gathering together”. – In recent weeks, scores of protesters in South Africa have been staging demonstrations against undocumented migrants in what they have dubbed “Operation Dudula”, Zulu for “drive back” whose leader Nhlanhla ìLuxî Dlamini was arrested on Thursday according to the police. (Photo by LUCA SOLA / AFP)
AARON MOTSOALEDI

How do vigilante groups like Dudula come into being?

The state’s failure to act as a source of moral or political authority creates a vacuum that ‘seductive’ populist movements are happy to fill

  • Lyse Comins
7 min read
Private armed security officers take position during a joint operation with undercover and uniformed South Africa Police Service (SAPS) members in Jeppestown, Johannesburg, on July 12, 2021 during clashes with residents of the Wolhuter Men’s Hostel. – President Cyril Ramaphosa on July 12 said the deadly unrest gripping the country is unprecedented in post-apartheid South Africa as he deployed troops to help police crush the violence and looting sparked by the jailing of ex-president Jacob Zuma. (Photo by MARCO LONGARI / AFP)
ZUMAUNREST

Private security companies the ‘eyes and ears’ for police on public violence and looting

The private security guards were also first responders in some cases, and their helicopters provided information on emerging hotspots

  • Erika Gibson
4 min read