July 2021 riots 'instigators' to be charged under Terrorism Act

The case against suspected 2021 July unrest instigators has been postponed to November after the state indicated it wants to add a terrorism charge.

The suspects, now 65 in total, are alleged to have co-ordinated the looting in July 2021 through a WhatsApp group called “FreeZumaCoordinators”.

They were arrested from August 2022 and initially charged with conspiracy to commit public violence, incitement to commit public violence and incitement to commit arson.

During their last court appearance in December 2022, the matter was postponed when the state said it wanted to add charges related to the Protection of Constitutional Democracy Against Terrorist and Related Activities Act.

When they appeared in the Durban regional court on Friday, the state again asked for the matter to be remanded to later in the year to prepare indictments for a possible terrorism charge.

“The state requires more time. The prosecutor had advised the state was ready to proceed to trial, but after accessing the information on the devices taken away from the accused persons the state found grounds to bring possible terrorism charges against them,” said National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) spokesperson Natasha Ramkisson-Kara.