Whether he and senior members of his department travelled to Isithebe in KwaZulu-Natal at an early stage to defuse the crisis which flared up there and which led over several days to (a) the burning and looting of many factories, (b) billions of rand of loss in production, (c) millions of rand of loss to workers who had no work to go to and (d) further loss of investor confidence; if not, what is the position in this regard; if so, what did he and his senior officials do to calm the situation and address the deep-seated grievances of the surrounding communities regarding service delivery failures and alleged nepotism;
(2) whether his department has a policy to act proactively and decisively in respect of crisis situations at local government level before the protests get out of hand and the protesters resort to arson, vandalism and obstruction of traffic; if not, why not; if so, what are the (a) relevant details and (b) outcomes thereof? NW858E