Riots latest: Is State Security Minister, Ayanda Dlodlo guilty of misleading the country?

The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) has called for the immediate removal and impeachment of State Security Minister Ayanda Dlodlo for ‘deliberately misleading the public and parliament about a non-existent intel that cautioned government on the Release Zuma riots’.

Last week, Ayanda Dlodlo said that her department provided the police with ‘adequate’ intelligence before the violence broke out.

DID DLODLO MISLEAD THE COUNTRY AND PARLIAMENT?

In a statement, the EFF said Dlodlo and the State Security Agency never had any intelligence product generated to foresee key events of the riots.

“There was no intelligence product which warned about the blockades of N3 Mooi River Plaza, the attack of commercial centres/malls, or even the marches by hostel dwellers. Neither did they send such an intelligence product to the SAPS or the Minister of Police.

“To this day, they cannot provide, even to the Parliament joint standing committee on Intelligence, any shred of evidence to support any of the claims that they informed government about the planned activities and that government elected to ignore or do nothing about them.”

EFF

Meanwhile, Cele addressed the parliament’s joint standing committee on police on Tuesday and said that he had never seen any intelligence documents that warned of the protests, looting and violence that would occur.

“It would have to come via me and I would give it to the national police commissioner, I want to repeat here, I have never seen that product,” Cele said.

CONTRADICTIONS WITHIN GOVERNMENT

In his national address, President Cyril Ramaphosa, called what unfolded in KZN and Gauteng a failed insurrection. Since then, a number of mixed messages have been sent from ministers in his cabinet.

On Sunday, Defence Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula said there was no evidence that the unrest was a failed insurrection. “We are not seeing signs of a coup or insurgency, but rather a counter-revolution creeping in, in the form of criminality and thuggery,” said the defence minister.

“This was designed to sow the seeds of division in the country,” said Mapisa-Nqakula.

The Minister in the Presidency, Khumbuzo Ntshaveni, hit back and told the media that the defence minister’s comments were not supported by facts from law enforcement. Later, Mapisa-Nqakula told eNCA that she did not mean to contradict the president.