Death Toll From Civil Unrest In South Africa's Phoenix Climbs To 36 - Police Minister

JOHANNESBURG (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 04th August, 2021) The death toll from the ethnic riots in the South African town of Phoenix in the southeastern province of KwaZulu-Natal has risen to 36, Police Minister Bheki Cele said on Tuesday.

With the onset of protests over the incarceration of ex-President Jacob Zuma, relations between the town's African population and representatives of the Indian community are reported to have sharply deteriorated. Indians organized self-defense units that allegedly blocked the entry of black Africans into the town center and, in some cases, used violence against them.

"The events in Phoenix, which I've outlined, claimed the lives of 36 people," Cele said at a press conference.

The minister mentioned that of the dead, 30 were gunned down, two were burnt to death, one was stabbed, one was run over and another two succumbed to stabbing injuries.

The investigations into the killings resulted in more than 20 suspects being arrested so far, the official said.

Phoenix was created as a workers' settlement on a sugarcane farm. In 1904, Mahatma Gandhi, then living in Durban, founded the Phoenix settlement, near the border with today's city. With the Group Territories Act of 1950, Phoenix was reserved for Indians. They now make up 85% of its population.