According to reports of the presentation of the Acting Police Commissioner to parliament, the students, according to his assessment, without leadership structures, could not have mounted the protests. Must have been a ‘third force’, though they are still investigating
Personally, I do believe that there was foul play at the Union buildings when a group started pelting the riot police with stones when the police were quite restrained. The same group also started breaking the fence and burning toilets etc. But that group does not appear to be what the acting commissioner has in mind.
The acting commissioner appears to be assisting the powers that be to avoid analysing what has happened, to avoid grappling with the questions that are being thrown up about how we understand current SA social realities and the forces for change.
I don’t believe that it is only the ANC and government who must be asking themselves hard questions, but all of us who want to see democratic and transformational developments in this country. We all need to revisit our understandings and paradigms. Only with such willingness to be open to uncomfortable truths, will we be able to progress