Reflecting on the July 2021 unrest: The lessons we learned and the implications

PEOPLE’S DESPERATE CRY

- JONATHAN ANNIPEN

JULY 2025 marks four years since one of South Africa’s darkest modern moments - the unprecedented unrest that swept across KwaZulu-Natal and parts of Gauteng in the wake of former President Jacob Zuma’s incarceration.

What began ostensibly as protests against the arrest of a former head of state quickly devolved into a full-scale attempted insurrection, revealing the deeper, festering wounds of a society teetering on the edge of collapse.

While the political trigger was clear, it was merely a spark to a powder keg long in the making: mass unemployment, entrenched poverty, a failing state, and the devastating socioeconomic fallout of the Covid-19 pandemic.

It was not just a protest — it was a desperate cry from a people disillusioned with their government and abandoned by the promise of democracy.

The community of Phoenix, where I proudly serve, became the unfortunate epicentre of the storm. When looters and violent instigators advanced toward homes, businesses, and places of worship, residents stood up.

Men and women, young and old, took up the mantle of self-defence - not out of hate, but out of fear. They did what the state failed to do: they protected lives, livelihoods, and the very fabric of their communities.

But amid that defensive stance, a terrible tragedy unfolded. A few individuals - acting outside the bounds of law and without the mandate of any community — targeted people based not on behavior, but on skin colour. Innocent lives were lost. Families were shattered. Children were orphaned. The names of Delani Hadebe, Mondli Majola, and others - black and Indian - echo as chilling reminders that hatred and racial profiling have no place in a democratic society.