Durban - The ANC says that it supports the work of the South African Human Rights Commission's hearings into the July unrest, but reserves the right to challenge any submissions made to the commission.
This comes following submissions made to the inquiry this week that put the ANC at the centre of the unrest.
In his submission to the inquiry, overseen by SAHRC commissioners Andre Gaum, Chris Nissen and Philile Ntuli, David Bruce, an independent researcher in the field of policing and public security, who works as a consultant for the Institute for Security Studies, said that the unrest which swept KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng had emerged within the ranks of the governing ANC or people associated with the ANC.
Bruce said that to the best of their knowledge the correct characterisation of the unrest was that it had emerged from within the ranks of the governing ANC.
“It just seems inherently problematic for our country if these type of threats to the security to security of the state emerge from within the governing (party), and so along with that goes a particular conundrum for security services or governance of the security services because one of the aspects of the governance of the security services that is desirable in a country is that politicisation of these security services be minimised.
“But it seems that the situation we had in July seems to have been one that if it was to have been pre-empted would have required that the intelligence agencies focus their scrutiny on elements within or linked to the governing party,” Bruce said.
Responding to Bruce's assertions, ANC National Executive Committee (NEC) member Dakota Legoete said that they would not give running commentary on the work and submissions made to SAHRC by individuals and organisations.
"Since it was a public hearings by a Chapter 9 institution lots of different submissions were made as expected. The SAHRC in line with its mandate will examine, deliberate on and test the submissions made, whether there is evidence to backup accusations or not. We will not pre-empt the work of the commission, nor it’s report. We will await the conclusion of SAHRC investigation on the July unrest," Legoete said.
Political Bureau