#UnrestSA: Thabo Mbeki Foundation warns of 'masters of the dark art'

Getrude Makhafola

On Friday, President Cyril Ramaphosa addressed the nation, amid rampant looting and rioting across South Africa.

Thabo Mbeki Foundation has urged South Africans to be vigilant and united against the "masters of the dark art."

The foundation said the recent violence and destruction of property in some parts of KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng were the result of state capture.

It called on President Cyril Ramaphosa to implement the economic recovery plan he tabled in Parliament in October 2020.

The Thabo Mbeki Foundation (TMF) has called on South Africans to be vigilant and not be misled by instigators exploiting the poor conditions of others.

Reacting to the recent unrest in some parts of KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng, the foundation said the country was harvesting the "bitter fruit" of state capture.

"As the TMF, we are aware that the country is harvesting the bitter fruits of a counter-revolutionary insurgency that has long been germinating in the bowels of what we commonly call 'state capture'. The hallmarks of state capture, the deliberate systematic denuding of state capacity that we have witnessed at SARS, SOEs, the weakening of forms of law enforcement," the foundation said in a statement on Friday.

"The economic sabotage, wanton destruction of property and infrastructure we have witnessed cannot be accepted as incidental. We recall that the current situation was foreshadowed by open threats of civil war and unrest," the foundation added.

The desperate socio-economic situation of most South Africans and the arrest and imprisonment of former president Jacob Zuma served as a perfect opportunity to start an offensive against the state, the foundation said.

READ | Nelson Mandela Foundation says #UnrestSA was 'a long time coming'

"The unprecedented avalanche of misinformation is well orchestrated to ensure that when the embers die down, this nation will be confronted with a population that has lost all hope and is in despair. In many ways, pessimism will strike and the human dignity that we have all strived for will become but a fleeting dream."

Addressing the nation on Friday evening, President Cyril Ramaphosa described the violence that ensued in the two provinces as a failed insurrection. At least 212 people died in the week-long riots and looting, 180 of them in KwaZulu-Natal. Ramaphosa said the violence was coordinated and organised by people who wanted to launch an attack on the country's constitutional order.

The foundation called for calm and unity.

Seven Capetonians carried a message of hope up Table Mountain to empathise with people in KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng who have had their lives upended by the unrest there.

"We call on all sectors of our society to refuse to be misled and fall victim to masters of the dark art designed to exploit our challenges as a people. Most importantly, we call on government and law enforcement agencies to spare no efforts and bring to book all those found to be behind this counter-revolutionary insurgency."

The foundation further called on government to implement the economic recovery plan tabled by Ramaphosa in October 2020.