Johnathan Paoli
THE Cultural, Religious and Linguistic (CRL) Rights Commission and the SA Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) have apologised over the lateness of initial investigative results into the July 2021 unrest, and said that historical tensions between Indian and African communities may have contributed to the deadly Phoenix racial attacks.
The CRL Rights Commission and the SAHRC were tabling on Monday the reports of their investigative hearings into the unrest, which followed what many have claimed to be popular discontent at the incarceration of former president Jacob Zuma.
The Chapter 9 institutions were investigating the violence which happened in parts of Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal where more than 350 people lost their lives. Several businesses were looted while others were torched during the wanton destruction that went on for days.
The 36 people who died in Phoenix were attacked by a group of vigilantes who claimed to be protecting the Indian community from looters during the unrest by targeting and attacking black Africans including women.
The CRL and the SAHRC held hearings in Durban and Gauteng between November 2021 and January 2022 with the Phoenix Massacre featuring as a bigger part of the Durban leg of the hearings.
CRL CEO Edward Mafadza said that in the context, it remained appropriate to apologise to communities and families that had actually waited for the report and said that changes within the commission were also to blame for the delays.
“In-depth consultations with relevant stakeholders and slow responses from other parties that needed to furnish a commission with information in order to complete the reports has been part of the contributory factors that led us to some delays in releasing these reports,” Mafadza said.
CRL Rights Commission chairperson, David Mosoma said that the institution found that there existed a historical relationship of mistrust between members of the African and the Indian communities which had resulted in co-existence becoming impossible to sustain.
“The mistrust of the Africans by the Indians allegedly led to the killing of Africans by the Indians, as cited by some members of the community, and this, in their view, had a historical genesis or origin in 1949 events,” Mosoma said.
Meanwhile, speaking during a media briefing, SAHRC commissioner Philile Ntuli said that the commission’s investigation could find no direct link between Zuma’s arrest and the unrest, but did find evidence which indicated that the acts which occurred were orchestrated.
Ntuli said that the timing of the events of the July unrest “coincided” with Zuma’s jailing and that therefore, “it could not find evidence to link the two events”.
“Amidst this socio-economic downturn, the nation was also facing the unprecedented event of the possible incarceration of a former head of state,” she said.
Commissioner Ntuli said that the investigations revealed two types of perpetrators during the unrest, namely primary and secondary.
“Primary actors who were well resourced, led and executed the widespread destruction of property, and perpetrated arson attacks. They in turn mobilised secondary actors, who participated in acts of theft at malls and other business premises,” Ntuli said.
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