Community leaders demand healing and reconciliation on the fourth anniversary of the July unrest
Image: Zainul Dawood
Emotions brewed when a July 2021 unrest victim's family member took the podium at the fourth-year commemoration of the tragic event in Phoenix on Saturday.
Chris Biyela, a Bhambayi resident and a convener of the peace committee, remains resolute that there was still a long way to go for the reconciliation process unless people owned up to being racist.
Biyela had lost a relative in the incident that claimed more than 30 lives in the Phoenix area.
The Commission for the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Cultural, Religious and Linguistic Communities (CRL Rights Commission) and the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) held the commemoration as a symbolic gesture to promote peace, friendship, humanity, reconciliation, social cohesion, and solidarity between the members of the African and Indian communities in the surrounding areas.
Biyela firmly believed that the murders in Phoenix were racially motivated, and some in the crowd asked him to withdraw the statement.
He advised people to allow the healing process to take place and admit they were wrong.
Biyela said he was disappointed that people still deny the fact about what happened.
'After four years, people still believe we were killed because we were criminals. The truth is the truth, and people cannot sugarcoat the facts. People cannot come and deny that people were killed because of skin colour. We will unite this community by telling the truth,' Biyela said.
He also wanted the Phoenix community to bring forth those who committed some of the murders so that they can be dealt with by the courts.
'Criminals who committed the crimes are still out there. We are no longer fools. You are not prepared to listen to the facts from our side. You want us to say it was nice to experience the death of our people. Where is your conscience?' he asked.
On June 29, 2021, the Constitutional Court found former president Jacob Zuma guilty of contempt of court, resulting in a 15-month imprisonment.
The SAHRC found that 40,000 businesses and 50,000 informal traders were affected, with 150,000 jobs put at risk. The financial damage of the unrest was estimated at R50 billion, and approximately 353 lives were lost.
Thoko Mkhwanazi-Xaluva, the CRL Rights commission chairperson, said for the healing process to begin, people needed to accept the fact that something wrong happened in July 2021.
She said they were in discussions with several organisations to assist with future projects.
'We need to accept the pain of healing, which will take time. We will come back regularly and go through the particular process with the communities to build social cohesion and peace. We know the community is trying on its own with religious leaders. Trust the process and move forward,' she said.
Pastor Selvan Govender, a Phoenix community leader, said that they gathered not only to speak of dreams and hopes, but to remember, to commemorate the lives lost, the families torn apart, the businesses destroyed, and the communities fractured during the violence that erupted.
'We pause to acknowledge that what burned was not only buildings and shops, but the fragile bonds of trust painstakingly built since 1994. The unrest was more than the destruction of property. It ripped away the bandage covering an old wound — a wound of inequality, resentment, mistrust, and unspoken fears,' he said.
Govender said the unrest sowed deep divisions between Indian and Black communities, especially in Phoenix, Inanda, Ntzuma, and KwaMashu.
'We saw anger boil over, lives cut short, friendships betrayed, neighbours turned enemies. We must say today that we do not want their deaths to go unrewarded. We refuse to allow their passing to be meaningless. Their lives mattered. Their loss must weigh on us. Let us not dishonour their memory with silence or denial. The best reward we can give them, the truest memorial we can build, is a reconciled South Africa,' Govender said.
Mxolisi Myeni, a community leader, advised that peace and stability are not going to happen unless everyone comes together.
'When we leave this place, we might have criticism, but we need to deal with the dilemma. We made it through the session because we have understood, the only way to resolve matters is through dialogue. We don't have to agree, but it's a social compact. I may not agree, but let me just hear you. I appeal to leaders to take the conversation and dialogue forward,' he said.
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The CRL Rights Commission and the SAHRC held a commemoration ceremony for the July 2021 unrest in Phoenix on Saturday.
Image: Leon Lestrade / Independent Newspapers
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