‘We’re gutted and in shock’
A BIG dark cloud is hanging over New Zealand. That’s how former Joburg nurse Amber Rex described yesterday’s horrific attacks on two mosques in Christchurch which left 49 people dead and scores injured.
Rex is a nursing manager at a medical facility in Christchurch, “two minutes” from the shooting scenes.
The police phoned in to alert staff to the shootings. “We were put on immediate lock-down. Only police and ambulances were allowed in the city. We are all one people here and we enjoy a massive community feeling. This is like a big dark cloud.”
Rich Hurt, a former Pietermaritzburg resident, said his wife, Francoise, had hoped to get home from work before the lockdown took effect and tried to catch an early bus home.
“I hauled into town to pick her up as we realised the buses would also be taken off the roads. It was the fastest I had ever driven on New Zealand roads.”
The local community was “gutted and in shock”, he said, adding that everyone had “rallied around the Muslim community in a way only the Kiwis can do”.
Former Durban journalist, Joe Stolley, BRENTON Tarrant, above, the Australian who posted sickening footage of his terror attack on the Christchurch, New Zealand, mosques on social media, described himself in a “manifesto” as an “ordinary white man who decided to take a stand”.
Tarrant, 28, who had worked as a personal trainer in Australia, said he was from a working-class, low-income family. “My parents are of Scottish, Irish and English stock. I had a regular childhood, without any great issues. I had little interest in education during my schooling, barely achieving a passing grade.
“I am just a regular white man, from a now the editor of the Southland Express in Invercargill, said “this is something (the) Kiwis normally watch on TV, about some troubled spot elsewhere. A man stealing playstation games from a local library was one of the most widely read stories read from my publication. So 49 people killed is simply unfathomable.”
In the capital of Wellington, former Durbanite Jacqueline Marriah said: “The way the death toll has been rising is just awful”, and the issue of white supremacy “was not reflective of our day-to-day lives here”.
New Zealand police confirmed that three people had been arrested, with one man in his late twenties being charged with murder and due to appear in a Christchurch court today.
While authorities did not release any identities, 28-year-old Australian regular family who decided to take a stand to ensure a future for my people.”
Describing himself as “an eco fascist”, he said he wanted to incite violence and intimidate immigrants to leave Western countries.
His rifle and ammunition clips were painted with names celebrating people who had used violence against Muslims, among them Anton Lundin Petterson, who killed two migrant children in Sweden, and Alexandre Bissonnette, who killed six people in a mosque attack in Canada in 2017. Skanderberg, the Albanian leader who rose against the Ottoman Empire, Brenton Tarrant filmed the attack on social media.
Carrying an automatic rifle and dressed in a camouflage outfit, he is seen gunning down men, women and children at close range in the Al Noor Mosque during prayers shortly before 2pm. The second shooting happened at the Linwood Mosque, about 5km away from Al Noor Mosque.
Yesterday afternoon, President Cyril Ramaphosa said: “The government and people of South Africa convey their deepest condolences to the families who have lost their loved ones and wish all the injured a speedy recovery.”
The SA diplomatic mission in Wellington had been directed to support any affected South Africans, he said.
The Department of International Relations and Co-operation and the South African High Commissioner in is mentioned, as is Charles Martel, the Frankish leader who defeated the Muslim army at the Battle of Tours.
The soundtrack playing in his car was Remove Kebab – a song from the Bosnian genocide sung by soldiers of General Ratko Mladic who has subsequently been found guilty of war crimes.
His view on Brexit is that “it is a wonderful thing”.
On whether or not he is a supporter of Donald Trump, he wrote: “As a symbol of renewed white identity and common purpose? Sure. As a policy maker and leader? Dear God, no.” | Frank Chemaly New Zealand, Vuyiswa Tulelo, said there had been no reports yet of any of the victims being South Africans.
In Durban, Ahmed Paruk, the chairperson of the Muslim Burial Council, strongly condemned the attack.
“We have just come from prayers where there was a sermon on what happened in Christchurch. We maintain that our faith is about peace, peace, peace.”
The SA Jewish Board of Deputies said: “We stand up against hate crimes against all religious communities. We stand in solidarity with the people of Christchurch.”
The Muslim Youth Movement of South Africa called the attack a “senseless killing”.
Mosques across the country and the world yesterday dedicated their prayers to the victims of the horrific attacks.