'Solidarity with Floyd is useless if there's no justice for Khosa': Mzansi reacts to ANC's US police brutality statement

The ANC's statement on the George Floyd protests in the US has been largely criticised after not mentioning Collins Khosa's death, allegedly at the hands of police and SANDF members during the lockdown.

The ruling party, in a statement, called for calm in the US after riots ignited by Floyd's death erupted last week.

Floyd, a black man, died on May 25 after being physically restrained by a white police officer who knelt on his neck for about nine minutes.

“While we note the action taken by American authorities in charging one of the officers who was caught on camera kneeling on an unarmed Floyd, it is equally concerning that incidents of police brutality against African American citizens are on the increase.

“The cascade of recent cases — Ahmaud Arbery, jogging while black, Breonna Taylor, sleeping while black, and Floyd, encountering police while black — has sharpened the focus on inescapable realities that American society places a perilously low value on black lives,” said the ANC.

The party also called for President Cyril Ramaphosa to “engage with the American government” through diplomatic channels to “diffuse racial tensions and build social cohesion among different races”.

The statement comes after leaders and politicians have been urged to show solidarity across the globe, however, not mentioning Khosa's name raised a lot of questions for some South Africans.

Khosa, from Alexandra township, was allegedly killed by South African National Defence Force (SANDF) soldiers in April after suffering injuries to the head.

TimesLIVE reported on Thursday that the SANDF board found that the soldiers accused of killing Khosa could not be held liable for his death, citing that there was no link between the injuries he sustained due to their actions and him dying.

Here is a snapshot of some of the reactions on the ANC’s statement.