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Hostel dwellers’ organisation distances itself from social media posts urging people to attack Phoenix

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An organisation representing hostel dwellers has distanced itself from social media posts urging people to attack Phoenix in the north of Durban, KwaZulu-Natal.

Ubunye BamaHostela spokesperson, Steve Thusi, says they have become aware of such messages on social media by people claiming to represent the organisation.

More than 20 people died in the Phoenix area in the unrest more than two weeks ago. It is alleged that the violence led to racially motivated attacks.

The riots followed the incarceration of former president Jacob Zuma for defying a Constitutional Court order.

Thusi has encouraged people who have information about calls for an attack on Phoenix to pass it on to the police.

“We are saying to our people from the hostel that we are not supporting any organisation which is organising of killing or attacking people from Phoenix; also to deal about Zuma’s issues because there is nothing we can do. Zuma took a decision himself to handover himself to the police, we need to support what he has done,” adds Thusi.

Unpacking the Phoenix massacre:

Earlier, ActionSA’s chairperson in KwaZulu-Natal, Dr Makhosi Khoza, told a media briefing that she received voice notes by ANC members three weeks before the start of the violent unrest.

Khoza says the voice notes made it clear that the goal was to force president Cyril Ramaphosa and his cabinet to quit.

ANC spokesperson in KwaZulu-Natal, Nhlakanipho Ntombela, the former ANC MP should have reported the voice notes to law enforcement agencies.

Ntombela says they do not know if such calls were indeed made by ANC members.

“If she had that information three weeks prior to it happening, she should have informed law enforcement authorities which she did not do, as the ANC, we only became aware of those voice notes. I think they happened immediately after the former president, had handed himself over in the Estcourt prison and that’s when law enforcement authorities were made aware that such things are circulating and they must act on those issues,”explains Ntombela.

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