Zulu Accounts at the Human Rights Commission

By: Sthulile Mdletshe

Testimony on the July unrest continues at the SA Human Rights Commission in Umhlanga north of Durban, with Social Development Minister Lindiwe Zulu taking the stand today.

The commission is looking into the events that took place during the fateful week in July that saw at least 281 people being declared dead in KZN alone.

33 of them were murdered in Phoenix north of Durban. Thousands of other people were injured in the province as well as Gauteng in riots, looting and incidents of destruction.

The HRC is looking into the causes of the unrest, the alleged racially motivated attacks and killings, as well as the apparent lapses in law enforcement agencies at the time.

On Tuesday, KZN Police Commissioner Khehla Sithole explained to the commission how the unrest overstretched their limited resources.

Zulu has now explained her role in ensuring the well being of citizens especially the vulnerable during that time.

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The minister says the unrest was driven mostly by unemployment, especially amongst the youth.

She says the percentage of people who had a stable income slowly decreases in the country because of the lockdown and regulations that forced companies to lay off their staff due to financial constraints.

Zulu further says the masterminds behind the riots, looting and incidents of destruction knew that South Africans were in a vulnerable states financially, adding that this made it easy to convince them to loot what they deemed as a need at the time.