POLL | Are South Africans more vocal about American police brutality issues than local ones?

03 June 2020 - 16:26 By Cebelihle Bhengu
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Since the murder of a US black man, George Floyd, by a white police officer, South Africans have been more vocal about racial discrimination.
Since the murder of a US black man, George Floyd, by a white police officer, South Africans have been more vocal about racial discrimination.
Image: Allan Swart/123RF

The ANC has been criticised for its perceived failure to acknowledge Collins Khosa in its statement calling for calm in the US, after protests and condemnation of the death of African American George Floyd by a white police officer.

Some have compared Floyd's murder to that of Khosa, an Alexandra resident who was allegedly killed by soldiers on April 10 for violating lockdown regulations, TimesLIVE reported.

In its statement, issued on Monday, the ruling party said it was worrisome that cases of police brutality in the US were on the rise. It named African American men who were recent victims of such injustice, but made no mention of Khosa.

SANDF soldiers were cleared by a military inquiry, which concluded in its investigation that the cause of Khosa's death could not be linked to the injuries sustained at the hands of soldiers, TimesLIVE reported.

Though the death of Floyd is a combination of alleged police brutality and racial discrimination, and Khosa's an alleged abuse of power, some South Africans have drawn comparisons between the deaths of the two men, with some calling for fellow South Africans to be as vocal about local issues of discrimination and abuse of power as they are about similar issues affecting African Americans.


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