Justice and correctional services minister Ronald Lamola has admitted that he was growingly frustrated over the failure of the state to bring to book political masterminds and criminal syndicates behind the July riots.

There hasn't been a conviction almost a year after the country was plunged into deadly mayhem.

Lamola was on Thursday testifying on the second last day of the SA Human Rights Commission’s (SAHRC’s) national investigative hearings which are probing the cause of the unrest and the implications it has on human rights.

“Sometimes you feel like you can just go into the field and do it but, obviously, we are guided by the laws. We have to give that space to the relevant law enforcement agencies,” Lamola said.

Lamola said his concern around the failure to nab those who orchestrated the arrest was also shared by President Cyril Ramaphosa.

“I must state that we are obviously concerned and I know that the president shares the same concerns that these individuals must be held to account,” he said.

SAHRC commissioner Philile Ntuli pointed out that the SA public was losing confidence in the state and the public service as the police and justice system had failed to arrest brazen criminals who had stolen a massive cache of ammunition and bombed ATMs.

Lamola said his department had pumped resources into the NPA and the court system to make them “prosecution ready” for perpetrators.

More than 3,000 alleged looters were arrested along with a few alleged instigators, but there has been no conviction.

However, none among them is alleged to have been among those who planned the unrest, which was triggered by former president Jacob Zuma’s imprisonment.

Evidence leader Buang Jones asked Lamola over the absence of arrest of a single high-profile ANC leader in relation to the riots, despite the finding by the presidential expert panel into the unrest that it was influenced by intraparty battles within the governing party.

Lamola said: “It does concern me, and it can only end there. I cannot instruct the NPA or the police who and how they must arrest. But I do believe, hopefully, with the information at their disposal, at some stage they will be able to arrest the masterminds behind this unrest.”

Lamola admitted that the state has so far failed to bring to book those who had been truly behind what has been dubbed a failed insurrection.

“We do need to see the masterminds, the plotters and the ringleaders of these events to be arrested,” he said.

Lamola said finding those who hatched the unrest plan and throwing them behind bars would serve as a deterrent for future riots and send a message that no-one was above the law.

Media Monitoring Africa will be the last organisation to table its evidence before the inquiry wraps up its hearings and collate all evidence.

SAHRC spokesperson Gushwell Brooks said the commission would now be focused on using the oral and written evidence to produce a report which would be released in the coming months.