By: Natasha Archary

President Cyril Ramaphosa has sent a warning to anyone who is threatening election unrest that they will be arrested.
Speaking to media at the site visit and inspection of the newly constructed Middelburg Hospital in Mpumalanga, Ramaphosa said there have been murmurs of threats for another unrest intended to disrupt this year’s elections.
Ramaphosa made it clear that anyone who is threatening any form of unrest will be arrested because he will not have a repeat of the July 2021 unrest that cost the country over R50 billion.
“We’ve been hearing that and I must make it clear to anyone who is threatening any form of unrest, the threats will be followed up and you will be arrested.
Those are people who belong in jail. These are people who are the enemies of our democracy.
People of South Africa value this hard won democracy and they don’t want any form of instability, and we’ve always followed the rule of law that when you are dissatisfied with any decision, whether it’s the government’s decision, President’s decision, a Minister’s decision, even a court’s decision, there are ways which all those complaints can be followed up.
So, for anyone to say ‘if this is not going to happen they are going to have instability,’ it’s against the will of the people of South Africa.
I can promise you, those people will be followed up, we will arrest them.”
President Ramaphosa has sent a firm message to anyone threatening to cause instability during the May 2024 elections.
The 2021 incidents of unrest, violence and looting hit parts of Gauteng as well, but KwaZulu-Natal was the hardest hit, further fueling that the reason for the unrest was due to Zuma’s arrest.
President Cyril Ramaphosa said the unrest was used as a smokescreen to carry out acts of economic sabotage with attacks on commercial trucks carrying goods, looting and torching of malls, factories and warehouses and blocking roads and highways.
Ramaphosa concluded his visit to the hospital by engaging in government-community interaction during the Presidential Imbizo.
Also read: Anti-drug activist says Joslin’s case has shown that more needs to be done to protect neglected kids



