Xenophobia – most HRC complaints are against king

MORE than 20 complaints about xenophobia have now been reported to the South African Human Rights Commission, with the majority of them against Zulu King Goodwill Zwelithini.

The commission’s spokesman, Isaac Mangena, said yesterday that some of the complaints about xenophobic attacks in the country were more general.

“But most of them touched on what the king said,” he said.

He was not in a position to disclose who had made the complaints.

However, the Defence Force Union is known to have asked the commission to investigate the king. A Nigerian Human Rights Organisation had also made a hate-speech complaint against the king to the International Criminal Court at The Hague, in the Netherlands.

The Defence Force Union’s spokesman said last month that the king should be investigated for infringing foreigners’ rights to dignity, security, life, movement and residence.

Its Cape Town organiser, Tim Flack, said that the union also wanted the king to face criminal charges.

The complaints emanated from a speech the king made during a moral regeneration event in Pongola in March, at which he allegedly called for foreigners to pack their belongings and leave the country.

This speech was linked by some to the xenophobic attacks which started in Durban and spread to other parts of the province and Gauteng. Thousands of foreigners were displaced and at least seven people killed.

Mangena said the investigation against the king was at an advanced stage.

Previously the commission’s chairman, Lawrence Mushwana, had raised concerns that the investigation had been delayed by a reluctance to release a complete copy of the king’s speech, which was central to the investigation.

However, Mangena said the king’s office had since fully cooperated with the investigation.

Last month the king, addressing an imbizo at Durban’s Moses Mabhida Stadium, called for an end of the attacks, but denied that he had called for the deportation of foreigners during the Pongola speech.

“We will take into consideration the king’s call for the end of the attacks,” Mangena said.

Previously, it was reported that the commission had been threatened by unidentified individuals and told that the king should be left alone.