Indians had to pick cricket bats in self defence: South Africa minority leader

SHAMEEN Thakur-Rajbanshi, the chief of South Africa’s Minority Front, which has a major support in the country’s Indian community which has faced a considerable attack during the ongoing violence, has said that the “Indian community is devastated” by the riots. She said the situation turned so bad for them that they had to pick up cricket bats in self-defence.

Speaking to World Is One News (WION) channel based in New Delhi, she said the riots reminded one of the 1949 riots in Durban. She said the attack on the Indian community focused on looting houses and businesses and damaging infrastructure.

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Rajbanshi said the Indian community in South Africa believes in nonviolence which is “ingrained in our people” but warned the perpetrators of violence against seeing the community as a soft target. “As a community, we are not going to accept this,” she told the Indian news outlet.

Rajbanshi, who is a member of the legislature of KwaZulu-Natal province, which has a considerable population of Indian origin and has been rocked by the violence, said the members of the Indian community had to arm “themselves with cricket bats because that is what is they had to do eventually.” She also thanked the government for responding to the crisis and the stepping in of the army.

She also pointed out that social media played an important role in helping people connect as a community and protecting each other.

The violence erupted after former South African president Jacob Zuma was imprisoned on charges of contempt of a court after he failed to cooperate with a state commission investigating corruption. More than 100 people have been killed in the violence while massive properties were destroyed.

Gupta Brothers a reason for attacks on Indians?

Rajbanshi was asked by another Indian news outlet OpIndia about the attack on the Indian community. It asked her that one of the common theories is that the violence is a backlash against the Indians because of the influential Gupta Brothers. When asked whether she believed that the corruption charges against them along with Zuma led to the violence against the Indian community, she said using the Gupta Brothers as an excuse to unleash violence on the Indian was not acceptable.

“There are many foreign businesses in South Africa. From the inception of our democracy, many people have come to SA looking for business opportunities. They have courted different presidents, leaders, influential people and they have integrated with the business community. They have been a part of powerful structures.

Using the Gupta Brothers as an excuse to unleash violence on the Indian community is something I completely denounce. There comes a time as an Indian community we need to stand up. In South Africa, we have had large scale corruption by several other foreign business leaders but it has never taken racial undertones and it has never resulted in violence against their community. This is a political battle and the Indian community is being made a scapegoat,” she said.