The SAHRC hearing was being held in Sandton to understand the cause of the unrest and its impact on communities.

The SAHRC July unrest hearings are investigating the civil upheaval in KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng last year, which left at least 340 people dead.

Makhubela said:The material conditions are favourable for a popular revolution to take place in Soweto. As a country, we are sitting on a ticking time bomb as a result of a lack of hope among the youth. The threat of revolt has been among us for a long time.

He added that unemployment in the community was so high that the township's streets looked like "the weekend on [a] workday" due to the number of people milling around.

He also chronicled a breakdown of trust between the police and the community, saying there was intelligence about the plans for unrest, that were reported to the police.

"Community leaders did engage the authorities about the imminent threat, but nothing was done," he said.

He added that Soweto residents were not surprised by the lack of a coordinated response from the police, because that was what "the community is subjected to daily".

Makhubela also lambasted the police's handling of the recovery of items stolen during the looting. He said police officers had visited homes in Soweto, and had confiscated food items if the residents had not been able to produce a receipt for its purchase - this included open bags of maize meal and containers of sunflower oil.

The food was later destroyed, said Makhubela, before adding:
This may be legally correct, but it is immoral in the eyes of Africans. How do you destroy food when there are millions that go hungry?

Makhubela added that the government's failure to provide sufficient housing for the community had also increased tension.

"Our main service delivery issue is housing. A house gives someone dignity, access to water, electricity, sanitation and protection," he said.

Source: News24