Police are no better equipped now to handle threats to national security than they were when parts of the country were hit by violent unrest in July last year.

This is the view of security experts after the release of a report which found police and intelligence leadership structures had been dysfunctional and unprepared to handle the riots and looting in KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng.

They have raised concerns about police inability to respond to the riots.

The expert panel report released on Monday found that the SA Police Service had been completely unprepared, uncoordinated and overwhelmed by the large number of people who looted shopping malls across Durban and Johannesburg.

Speaking to the Sowetan, crime expert and former head of the Crime Information Analysis Centre, Dr Chris de Kock, said the way police handled the unrest had been dismal.

“The report says all police must get public order training. Did police get public order training since July until now? I haven’t heard anything like that.

“You don’t train someone for a week. Public order training is complex because you have to understand restlessness, facelessness and also the mood of the protesters because you have to know how to read a crowd and if you don’t, then you’ll end up with a situation like Marikana,” De Kock said, referring to the massacre of miners by police in 2012.

De Kock said SA was no safer today than it was in July and unable to intercept any similar threat.

“If we get similar unrest today, how will the SAPS be better capable to handle it? I don't think they are better equipped today than in July,” he said.

Gareth Newham, justice and violence prevention head at the Institute for Security Studies, said the mistake the government made was to turn state security agencies into places they controlled for political reasons and not for public safety.

He added that the problems in the state security agencies weakened public safety, as shown by crime statistics.

“We’ve seen a decline in public safety over the years.  Between 2012 and 2021, murders increased by 37%. Crimes such as armed robberies, house robberies, car hijackings all increased by 43%. We’ve seen a growth in organised crime, rampant corruption... people are less safe. This means you are more likely to be attacked now than nine years ago due to the failures of these agencies caused by political interference,” Newham said.

Public safety expert Dr Guy Lamb said the nation had less intelligence, which made the country unable to prevent violence.

Lamb added that efforts to bring about reforms in the State Security Agency (SSA) had already begun as the institution was pulled into the presidency.

Three weeks ago, President Cyril Ramaphosa announced minister in the presidency Mondli Gungubele would assume political responsibility for the SSA.

“There are efforts to try and professionalise and depoliticise SSA. But with SAPS there are still great concerns...The leadership there is quite unstable.

“It was clear with their response to the riots and evidence brought during the inquiry afterwards that they were not prepared. That issue has not changed much... Often if there is a leadership conflict within SAPS it means that the safety of ordinary South Africans is not prioritised,” Lamb said.