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Violent looting is a serious threat and cannot be sugar-coated, says Maimane

Mmusi Maimane.
Mmusi Maimane.
Image: ALON SKUY

One SA Movement leader Mmusi Maimane has weighed in on the ongoing violent looting in the country, saying it is a serious threat not to be sugar-coated.

Over the past few days, rampant rioting and looting has been taking place in KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng under the banner “Shutdown SA”. It was initially linked to the incarceration of former president Jacob Zuma.

Expressing dismay at the situation, Maimane said the lawlessness and looting was a sign that the ANC had lost all moral authority and was dead and buried.

He said this proved that it was time for direct elections to remove the “crooks” from parliament, and elect leaders committed to SA.

“We cannot afford to decline into lawlessness and violence or to be divided on lines of race or tribe. This will take us nowhere and simply flame more violence and division,” he said.

Maimane said ANC factionalism and ethnic-nationalism were at the heart of the crisis and the public was suffering.

“In truth, it is the devastating socio-economic conditions in our poor communities that allow politicians to exploit the needs of the disadvantaged for their own ulterior motives,” he said.

“The poor are being exploited, being used as pawns by powerful and selfish politicians. This must be denounced in the strongest terms.”

ActionSA leader Herman Mashaba said a small percentage of opportunistic criminals were holding the rest of the country hostage.

He said what was happening was the result of decades of misrule, lack of opportunity and lawlessness that has been allowed to thrive from the top to the bottom.

“Our number one priority needs to be returning law and order to the streets of this country. We need to act swiftly to arrest, prosecute and sentence those known to be instigating the violence that has gripped SA,” said Mashaba.

He said the ANC government was the real enemy, and the sooner SA removed the party, the sooner the country could be fixed.

“Long ago, I said that SA and the ANC cannot coexist in peace and prosperity. One must die for the other to live. Let today be the beginning of the end for the ANC in government,” he said.

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