The house that apartheid built: what room for cohabitation?

Abstract

What happens when people revolt against each other? What ignites communities to bond together against another or alternatively, to bond together for the purposes of causing harm? Whether it is in defense of property and/or loved ones, or retaliation against perceived injury inflicted by the other? It is a strange thing—this notion of a bond. On the surface, the word connotes a sense of connection and togetherness. And yet, being bonded may also mean being bonded against another. In the words of Amartya Sen (2006, p. 3), “the adversity of exclusion can be made to go hand in hand with the gifts of inclusion.” In the month of July 2021, KwaZulu Natal was the scene of sporadic rioting and violence that escalated to large-scale riots and incidences of violence following the incarceration of former President Jacob Zuma. According to media reports, “Eighty-nine malls and shopping centres were targeted, as were 45 warehouses, 22 factories, eight banks, 88 ATMs, 89 liquor outlets, eight liquor distributors, 139 schools, and 37 trucks” with an estimated cost to eThekwini’s GDP standing at about R20 billion (Erasmus & Hlangu, 2021). Costs to the commercial, business, and general infrastructure notwithstanding, another shadow was to further blight the province. Amid police overwhelm at curbing the spread and spate of the riots and destruction of property, vigilant groups emerged within the community of Phoenix, brutal acts of violence—in what has come to be popularly described as “The Phoenix Massacre”—were committed against perceived instigators and those categorized as threats. The rumor mill laid the death toll resulting from this emergent vigilantism to be anywhere between 300 and 500 (Erasmus & Hlangu, 2021). It also explicitly identified the mostly Indian community as instigating racially motivated attacks against Black community members. However, official reporting according to the KZN Premier Sihle Zikalala situates the total number of deaths arising from the community uprising to be at about 38, also adding that these deaths were not confined to the community of Phoenix but included the surrounds of Inanda and Verulam. Official investigation and court proceedings of arrested suspects are ongoing.