South African town tries to heal after fake news stokes racial tensions

Rumours of a 'massacre' stoked strife in the town of Phoenix

Community members gather around a road block they set up in Phoenix Township, North Durban, on July 15, 2021.

Armed community members and vigilante groups have stepped in to tackle unrest Phoenix in South Africa, taking matters into their own hands and sometimes stoking violence as security forces struggle to restore order. .

Armed community members gather around a fire to keep warm at a road block set up in Phoenix Township, North Durban, on July 15, 2021.

Understaffed and heavily reliant on private security companies, the police was rapidly overwhelmed when riots and looting first flared last week in the southeastern province of KwaZulu-Natal (KZN).

The charred remains of two vehicles are seen in Phoenix Township, North Durban, on July 15, 2021 after days of violence in the community. - Armed community members and vigilante groups have stepped in to tackle unrest in South Africa, taking matters into their own hands and sometimes stoking violence as security forces struggle to restore order. Understaffed and heavily reliant on private security companies, the police was rapidly overwhelmed when riots and looting first flared last week in the southeastern province of KwaZulu-Natal (KZN), sparked by the jailing of graft-accused former president Jacob Zuma.

Armed community members gather at a road block in Phoenix Township, North Durban, on July 15, 2021 set up to prevent looters from reaching the community. - Armed community members and vigilante groups have stepped in to tackle unrest in South Africa, taking matters into their own hands and sometimes stoking violence as security forces struggle to restore order. Understaffed and heavily reliant on private security companies, the police was rapidly overwhelmed when riots and looting first flared last week in the southeastern province of KwaZulu-Natal (KZN), sparked by the jailing of graft-accused former president Jacob Zuma.

A burnt out vehicle alongside a road in Phoenix, near Durban, South Africa, Friday, July 16, 2021, after violence in the town. South Africa's army has begun deploying 25,000 troops to assist police in quelling weeklong riots and violence sparked by the imprisonment of former President Jacob Zuma.

The casket containing the remains of Njabulo Allen Dlamini (31) a father of 11, taxi driver killed in Phoenix, Durban, on July 12 allegedly by a group of South African Indians resident manning a roadblock while defending their properties from looters, arrives on July 21, 2021 for its funeral service at his home. - Phoenix is flashpoint town between black South Africans and counterparts of Indian origin where at least 20 people died in the recent wave of violence. Like communities across South Africa, residents of the predominantly ethnic Indian town set up their own protection squads in response to pillaging and arson that broke out days after the jailing of ex-president Jacob Zuma on July 8th -- overwhelming security forces.

A burnt out vehicle alongside a road in Phoenix, near Durban, South Africa, Friday, July 16, 2021, after violence in the town. South Africa's army has begun deploying 25,000 troops to assist police in quelling weeklong riots and violence sparked by the imprisonment of former President Jacob Zuma.

A picture taken on July 16, 2021 shows a house destroyed after angry mobs set fire to homes in Duffs Road near Phoenix, where racial tensions have also been reported as President Cyril Ramaphosa visits the Kwazulu-Natal province where violence continued for 6 days. - South African President Cyril Ramaphosa on Friday alleged that deadly violence and looting that have shaken the country over the past week were planned. "It is quite clear that all these incidents of unrest and looting were instigated -- there were people who planned it and coordinated it," Ramaphosa said in a visit to KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) province, the flarepoint for post-apartheid South Africa's worst crisis.

A picture taken on July 16, 2021 shows a house destroyed after angry mobs set fire to homes in Duffs Road near Phoenix, where racial tensions have also been reported as President Cyril Ramaphosa visits the Kwazulu-Natal province where violence continued for 6 days. - South African President Cyril Ramaphosa on Friday alleged that deadly violence and looting that have shaken the country over the past week were planned. "It is quite clear that all these incidents of unrest and looting were instigated -- there were people who planned it and coordinated it," Ramaphosa said in a visit to KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) province, the flarepoint for post-apartheid South Africa's worst crisis.

Relatives of Njabulo Allen Dlamini (31) a father of 11, taxi driver killed in Phoenix, Durban, on July 12 allegedly by a group of South African Indians resident manning a roadblock while defending their properties from looters mourn on July 21, 2021 at his funeral service.

A member of the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) deployed outside the Phoenix Police Station in Phoenix township, north of Durban.

Phoenix is flashpoint town between black South Africans and counterparts of Indian origin where at least 20 people died in the recent wave of violence.

Shadows of men, members of the Phoenix Community Policing Forum, a grassroots mobilisation group involving local residents, are cast on the outside wall of a house while he and other members are on a lookout in Durban, on July 20, 2021. - Phoenix is flashpoint town between black South Africans and counterparts of Indian origin where at least 20 people died in the recent wave of violence. Like communities across South Africa, residents of the predominantly ethnic Indian town set up their own protection squads in response to pillaging and arson that broke out days after the jailing of ex-president Jacob Zuma on July 8th -- overwhelming security forces.

As South Africa reels from a week of riots that killed at least 337 people, injured dozens and caused billions of dollars of damage to two of the country’s major cities, one town is battling misinformation and ethnic tension as it cleans up.

Dozens of residents of Phoenix, a town in the eastern province of KwaZulu-Natal, have lost relatives in South Africa’s worst unrest since the end of apartheid, as rumours of violence and mass murders ran unchallenged through WhatsApp groups and social media.

Thirty-six people have been confirmed dead there since the violence started, Police Minister Bheki Cele said last week.

"What happened in Phoenix were criminal acts of the worst type, which also took a racial turn,” Mr Cele said.

He told The National that among the dead were three Indian South Africans and 33 black South Africans.

Of the arrested, “three or four” were black and the rest were Indian, Mr Cele said.

The South African army was sent to quell the unrest but it was over a week before they arrived in the town, which is about 24 kilometres north-west of Durban.

Community members and private security companies had to step in to protect businesses.

Armed vigilantes played a part, but some took a criminal approach to “protection” and deliberately confronted alleged looters and innocent citizens, sometimes violently.

Mr Cele said that the public perception of the violence had been worsened by misinformation.

Phoenix police issued screenshots of fake new spreading on WhatsApp to discredit the lies.

About 85 per cent of Phoenix’s population is of Indian or Asian descent, the most recent census data shows.

In mid-July, after the worst unrest, an unsubstantiated tale of “a massacre” involving between 350 and 500 black people in the town, said to be perpetrated by residents of Indian descent, began trending on Twitter.

Under the hashtag #PhoenixMassacre, gruesome videos and images spread around social media, many of them fake or out of context.

The false story of a mass murder seemed to be born out of single-source reporting from some media organisations.

One quoted a National Funeral Practitioners Association of South Africa official, saying there were 500 bodies at the Phoenix state morgue, stirring racial tension.

The province's Member of the Executive Council for Health, Nomagugu Simelane-Zulu, on July 21 dispelled the reports when she visited the mortuary.

Ms Nomagugu Simelane-Zulu said the mortuary was processing the remains of 128 people who were not necessarily all linked to the unrest.

The morgue has also been holding cadavers from the surrounding area, as many of the mortuaries were shut amid the violence.

The police have also arrested several suspects in connection with the misinformation, which included social media posts claiming that the fatal shooting of an Indian man was linked to murders in Phoenix. Police said that was false.

Fake News

Samier Singh, a Democratic Alliance Councillor in Phoenix, told The National he believed fake voice notes on WhatsApp and manipulated videos depicting local violence fanned tension.

He said they were probably orchestrated by supporters of former president Jacob Zuma, who was sentenced to jail for contempt.

“It's been planned to make the communities not only in Phoenix, but in KZN live in fear because there's a lot of fake voice notes announcing that there's one or two busloads of people coming for certain community members to hit and assault them," Mr Singh said.

"Where was the evidence to show that it happened?”

The initial lack of police and army presence in Phoenix also has people on edge.

Chris Biyela, the convener of a Phoenix peace committee formed after the unrest, told The National that if the government had acted more quickly, many lives would have been saved.

“Black people are still mostly not accepting of the Indian community," Mr Biyela said. "They are still angry with them. There are no terms of agreement to calm down the tensions as yet.

“It's because the Indian community are still in denial that they did wrong. They are still defending those who killed people."

Mr Biyela said his committee was planning the reconciliation process, and that the human rights commission, arts and cultural sectors in Phoenix and local churches would work together to hold community events to build a bridge between communities.

The South African Police Service has arrested 31 suspects in connection with the unrest, Mr Cele said on August 8.

Hundreds of firearms have been seized from private security companies working in the area, and from citizens.

The national police are investigating cases of attempted murder and assault, while the federal government is increasing police and army visibility in the town, and providing relief to those worst affected.

Some suspects have already been to court. Mr Biyela said that many of the others will face trial this week.

But deep rifts remain and many of Phoenix’s bereaved are no closer to justice.

Happy Mbambo was shocked after finding the body of her brother Thembenani in the Phoenix morgue after he was killed in the violence on July 12. He had been shot in the chest twice.

Ms Mbambo and her family are still in the dark as to what happened on the night of Thembenani’s death.

“Nobody wants to speak to us about him, even his friends," she told The National. "We keep on searching but nobody wants to tell us who shot him.

"Maybe they're scared or don't want to be involved, or maybe they don't know at all."