HRC calls for immediate rebuilding

THE South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) says that in the aftermath of the civil unrest that rocked the country last week, the critical task was to rebuild for the future benefit of poor communities instead of engaging in blame game antics.

The commission yesterday held an imbizo to mull over the immediate aftermath of the civil unrest that struck both Kwazulu-natal and Gauteng in recent weeks.

The unrest also saw the flare up of tensions between security personnel reportedly protecting the Phoenix community from alleged looters from surrounding communities which have left over 20 people dead.

Addressing the imbizo, SAHRC chairperson Bongani Majola called for immediate reflection and rebuilding for the benefit of poor communities.

“Ours is not to look back and point fingers at who is to blame. Ours is to think long and hard about the future of our people, their human rights and what will make our democracy stronger,” Majola said.

He said the commission was looking closely into the racial tensions in Phoenix, north of Durban, that have allegedly contributed to deaths in the area following last week’s civil unrest. Majola said that addressing the racial tensions was critical for them as they sought social cohesion in the area.

“We are actually focusing our attention on being present in Durban, including Phoenix, and we particularly highlighted the issue of social cohesion, that is part of the information that the commission will consider.

“It is good that it is brought up in detail so that the commission can then look at that and devise means of responding to this because our aim is to try to find a way in which we can address not only the social cohesion issue in Phoenix, but particularly we would like to attend to the social cohesions, the burning ones that are in Phoenix including the causes and solutions and what can be done to stop them,” Majola said.

Mascha Matthews from the Human Rights Development Initiative called for the need to address the structural causes of poverty, and the impunity of the corporate and state looters.

“What we witnessed last week were not random acts of looting for food only, it was a well planned and executed operation that used the plight of the poor and marginalised and are now using another fault line in South African society, which is race.”