Phoenix Killings| EFF Supporters Protest Killings in Durban Suburb In Rioting

MOGOMOTSI MAGOME|

SUPPORTERS of South Africa’s leftist opposition party, the Economic Freedom Fighters, on Thursday demonstrated against the killings of 36 people in Phoenix, a suburb of Durban, during the recent violent riots in KwaZulu-Natal province.

More than 1,000 people marched through Phoenix to hand police a statement demanding justice for the families of those who were killed in that town during the violence.

The riots in July, sparked by the imprisonment of former president Jacob Zuma, descended into widespread looting of shopping malls and retail shops across KwaZulu-Natal and spread to Gauteng, South Africa’s most populous province.

More than 300 people died in the week-long riots which were quelled by the deployment of 25,000 soldiers.

During the riots, racial tensions flared in Phoenix, a community predominantly of South Africans of Indian descent. Many Phoenix residents patrolled the suburb to prevent its shops and businesses from being looted and some