Police Minister Bheki Cele and residents of Amaoti visited several areas in Durban on Sunday to keep abreast of the investigation into the Phoenix murders. Photo: Nokulunga Majola A group of 50 people marched to Phoenix Police Station to seek justice for those killed and assaulted during the July riot. They want a judicial commission of inquiry into the riots and subsequent deaths in Phoenix. Police Minister Bheki Cele announced that 36 suspects had been arrested in connection with the Phoenix murders. Cele said the police are working closely with the NPA to ensure law enforcement. At least 50 people marched to the Phoenix police station in Durban over the weekend under the banner of the African United Activists and the Qina Mhlali movement. They are calling for a judicial inquiry to be set up into the killings and attacks in Chatsworth and Phoenix during the riots in KwaZulu-Natal last month. During a visit to the area, Police Minister Bheki Cele announced that 36 suspects were arrested in connection with the Phoenix murders during the riot. He said other affected communities are Bhambayi, Amaoti and Zwelisha. Cele was accompanied by KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Commissioner Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi and the MEC for Community Security and Liaison Officer Peggy Nkonyeni and the Community Peace Committee. He said an investigation was being conducted against seven private security companies operating in the area. Cele said several firearms were confiscated from private security companies. “It was always clear that people want peace. But peace goes hand in hand with justice, and I believe the police have initiated this process with great success. The detectives work closely with prosecutors to put solid cases together, ”said Cele. Speaking at the demonstration on Saturday, activist Sfiso Manyala told GroundUp: “Many people have struggled to access services such as clinics after being injured. They had to go to other areas. We want services like a clinic and mobile police stations in Bhambayi and Zwelisha. ”He said people from these areas still have to travel to Phoenix to the clinic and police station. According to the Bhambayi Peace Committee, three people died in the area and 25 were injured in the riot. Committee member Blessing Nyoni said she knew of at least four people who were “missing”. “We don’t know if they’re dead or injured, in hospital, or just hiding somewhere. We are still receiving reports of all damage, injuries and deaths, ”said Nyoni. She said ten vehicles were also damaged and burned. “Most people didn’t register case numbers with the police. We encourage them to do so so that we can document everything and everyone who is affected, ”said Nyoni. Bongani Mokubung, who says he was attacked and injured by vigilante groups during the July 12 riot, said, “I have a lot of questions. I saw so much hatred in people’s eyes when they beat me. How did they defend their homes when they attacked people on the street? Not all of the people who walked the streets during this period were criminals, so it is unfair to call us all one. ”He said he would only find peace if both looters and vigilantes took the full power of the Law. © 2021 GroundUp. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. You can republish this article as long as you mention the authors and GroundUp and don’t change the text. Please include a link back to the original article. We put an invisible pixel in the article so we can count traffic for new publishers. All analysis tools are located exclusively on our servers. We do not pass our logs on to third parties. Logs are deleted after two weeks. We do not use any information to identify IP addresses other than to count regional traffic. We are only interested in counting hits, not tracking users. When you publish again, please don’t delete the invisible pixel.
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