Parliamentary Inquiry into KZN violence must deal decisively with reckless Phoenix race baiting
27 July 2021
The DA calls on Parliament to urgently convene its parliamentary inquiry into the violent unrest which occurred in KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng and resulted in the deaths of more than 200 South Africans.
The DA is particularly concerned by the highly charged and racially fuelled fallout from some of these deaths, especially some social media accounts which have engaged in race baiting and fanning racial tension under the hashtag #PhoenixMassacre.
Minister Bheki Cele must be called to account for the South African Police Service’s (SAPS) failure to keep communities like Phoenix safe which led to a vacuum filled by community policing structures, private security firms and in some cases allegedly by opportunistic vigilantes. Minister Cele has regrettably hopped on the race baiting band wagon and spent a disproportionate amount of time focusing on alleged racial tension rather than examining the root causes of SAPS’ failure.