July unrest had unpredictable modus operandi – Khehla Sitole
National police commissioner Khehla Sitole says the unrest that shook KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng was planned but had an unpredictable modus operandi.
Representatives from the state and state entities are among those taking the stand this week at the South African Human Rights Commission's hearings into the weeklong violence and looting in July.
The delayed response time from the police and other law enforcement agencies came under the spotlight last week - when victims, community members and business leaders testified.
Sitole says an early warning notice was issued.
"There was a national instruction, NCCF, instruction three that was issued by the deputy national commissioner policing from the national crime combating forum for contingency alertness.
"So contingency planning operational instructions are always there, but because the modus operandi was not exactly known, there wasn't an approved operational plan."
Sitole admitted that the public order policing unit cannot cope beyond a level 3 crisis plan.
"At the present moment, we've got extremely limited capacity of that particular reserve compliment, because of the fact that our numbers are completely limited and down.
"As I indicated before, that instead of us having 12 000 we are at 5 000 and the demand by Gauteng alone is 4 000."
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