The Phoenix community in North Durban is still reeling from the shocking events of last week where a violent confrontation between residents of the largely Indian community and neighbouring informal settlement dwellers ended in one of South Africa’s bloodiest massacres.
Phoenix massacre victims are still missing
EFF MP Mam Khawula opened fresh wounds in her address at a meeting between political parties and the ministries of defence and police, on Tuesday.
Khawula urged law enforcement officials and political leaders to not let the names of those killed in the Phoenix unrest get overshadowed by the ‘hoopla’ of the looting that ravaged KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) and Gauteng.
The EFF leader got emotional and broke into tears stating that to this day, families in settlements outside Phoenix are still in search of their relatives and loved ones who are still missing and believed to have fallen victim to the violence that claimed at least 20 lives.
"For a country to be fixed, we have to listen to the people and stop being 'Honourable members' who only appear on television." -Mam Khawula becomes emotional during a meeting with the SANDF and SAPS.
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Police Minister Bheki Cele was in the North Durban suburb earlier this week. Engaging with members of the community at a symposium, the minister confirmed that 10 detectives from precincts outside of Phoenix have been brought in to probe the mass killings.
“It’s important to understand that there are people who have been killed. If it’s an Indian who killed an African, we must find the killer, if it’s an African who killed an Indian we must find the killer. We are not looking for an Indian or an African but we want to find the killers,” he said
He urged the community to work with investigators in bringing finality to a situation that could have erupted into a full-blown race war.
At this time, however, no persons have been placed under arrest and charged with crimes linked to the Phoenix murders.