Invoke terrorism laws to deal with water mafias, says Human Rights Commission
The South African Human Rights Commission has said the sabotage of water infrastructure should be regarded as a terrorist activity.
'The deliberate sabotage of water-related infrastructure to the extent where it is deliberately accompanied with an intent to instil fear, public panic or overthrow the current order while causing serious water disruption, should be considered as constituting a terrorist activity in terms of the Protection of Constitutional Democracy against Terrorist and Related Activities Amendment Act 23 of 2022,' the commission said.
It makes other recommendations to tackle the water crisis, including incorporating activities targeting water infrastructure to the priorities and needs in the draft national policing policy of October 2023, which must then be finalised and adopted.
Another recommendation is that the office of the president proclaim and promulgate the remainder of the Critical Infrastructure Protection Act 8 of 2019. When this Act comes into operation, the 'minister responsible for the administration of the Act [can] declare all water services infrastructure as critical infrastructure in terms of the […] Act,' it said.
A further recommendation is that the deliberate sabotage of water services infrastructure be considered as constituting a crime in terms of section 3(1) of the Criminal Matters Amendment Act.
Another useful response could be to make water infrastructure sabotage a national priority crime, said Johandri Wright, a researcher at the Dullah Omar Institute.
'This would still be somewhat reactive but it means we could get through investigations a lot quicker,' she said.
'It means we can mobilise more warm bodies and finances to try and up our criminal intelligence to a point where we can start acting proactively and engaging crime intelligence. This would be one of the larger and more important things that I would hope would come from this policy brief.' — Sheree Bega
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