A year on, the families and victims of last year’s civil unrest are crying out for justice. At least 350 people were killed in KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng during violent protests, looting and what is believed to be racially motivated attacks in Phoenix.
Delani Khumalo’s sister, Sizo’s pain has not eased. Her brother was an international choreographer who travelled the world working with young people. Khumalo and his cousin Mlondi were beaten and killed in Phoenix. Their bodies were then burnt.
Families like the Khumalos are still speaking up. Desperate for answers. Sizo Khumalo struggles to hold back the tears as she recalls seeing her brother’s body.
“By the look of the state of their bodies and the videos that circulated on the social networks, Delani’s body in the abdomen have a burnt tyre next to him there was Mlondi he also had a tyre, Mlondi’s body was found without one leg, while Delani had a badly burnt stomach, the way they were brutally attacked we could not even view them to pay our last respects, I am now left with their last picture in my mind when they were leaving our home in search of petrol and they never came back, I do not have a brother anymore.”
She says Delani was everything to his family and the main breadwinner.
“Delani was like a father to us, he was everything to us, he helped us and provided for his family, today we are orphans, the Phoenix killings robbed us of two people who held our family together and after the killing, my grandmother also followed them she could not handle the incident, I always ask myself if those Indians who killed them if they were truly protecting their property why they went to an extent to beat and kill them, why they never called police to arrest them if they were doing something wrong.”
Ntethelelo Mkhize survived a brutal attack in Phoenix during the unrest. Testifying before the Human Rights Commission’s Investigative Hearings into the unrest, he lifted his shirt to show the commissioners the scars that remain.
Bandages still wrap around his swollen abdomen. When he sat down, a deep frown had settled over his face. Mkhize testified to his attack.
“It was like a game to them some of them were laughing, some of them were swearing at me, both the groups other one came from our back circled us in our vehicle taking videos of what was happening at some point after being when I was shot, I fell down, there was a man who took my cellular phone, my shoes, and when I tried to stand up I was shot a third time, and I woke up in Phoenix clinic after being in a coma for three weeks.”
Director of Public Prosecutions in KwaZulu-Natal Advocate Elaine Zungu said in a statement that there are several ongoing looting-related matters at courts in the province. The statement further confirmed that there were 8 cases brought to Durban High Court. Two were declined to prosecute due to insufficient evidence. One case was withdrawn as the only witness could not be traced. The remaining five cases are pending.
