The Sunday News
Bruce Ndlovu and Judith Phiri, Sunday News Reporters
THE South African Council of Churches (SACC) has condemned the killing of Zimbabwean Elvis Nyathi under gruesome circumstances in Diepsloot, South Africa last week, saying his murder was a betrayal of the spirit of ubuntu and portrayed South Africans as mindless killers of fellow Africans.
Nyathi, was brutally attacked and his body was set alight in Diepsloot, a suburb of Johannesburg, on Wednesday night, with South Africa once again gripped by xenophobic violence amid the anti-immigrant Operation Dudula movement that is sweeping across the country.
In a statement, SACC secretary general, Bishop Malusi Mpumlwana, said the gruesome killing of Nyathi, a father of four, was reason for South Africans to hang their collective heads in shame, although there had been indications that Afro-phobic sentiments would lead to mindless violence in the last few months.
“The South African Council of Churches (SACC) is in despair at the horrific occurrence at Diepsloot Johannesburg, where a human being, Elvis Nyathi, was hunted down like a frightened animal, butchered and reportedly burnt to death. We echo the stern rebuke of SACC President Archbishop Thabo Makgoba who said,“Our ubuntu through your killing is being butchered in Diepsloot and many parts of the country!”
“We extend our deepest condolences to the Nyathi family, and hang our heads in collective shame that things have come to this.
Only last month we warned that this growing tendency of community groups going on search parties to “smell out” who they consider illegal foreigners will lead to deaths of people as has happened at Diepsloot.
In 2015 Emmanuel Sithole was stabbed to death at Alexandra, in 2019 Isaac Sithole was burned alive at Katlehong. Now we have pounced on Elvis Nyathi to meet a horrific death.
Is this how we should be known as South Africans, a country that prides itself of the culture of ubuntu-botho? Is the identity of ‘street killers of Africans’ the brand we choose to project for South Africa?” he said.
The African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) also said it was deeply concerned by the ongoing tensions in Diepsloot. In a statement on Friday, SAHRC communications coordinator, Mr Gushwell Brooks said the brutal murder was a tragic and outrageous act of vigilantism that must be condemned.
He said the Commission reiterates its call on community leaders, politicians, state officials and community leaders to refrain from encouraging ordinary members of communities to take the law into their own hands.
Mr Brooks said it was unlawful and highly dangerous to have disparate groups of ordinary community members entering people’s homes and without due process accusing them of criminality and taking violent, often deadly action.
