Hindu community lodges complaint at SAHRC over ‘racist’ TikTok video

The South African Hindu Maha Sabha, the national body for Hindus in the country, has condemned a “racist attack” on social media towards the Indian community and Hinduism.  

This comes after a 10-minute video clip was posted on TikTok in which a woman claiming to be a Christian prophet rails against the Indian community.  

The TikTokker, who called herself Zukiswa Mfenqe, can be heard in the video saying she had received a prophecy from the Lord. She said “I will shake the Indians” in South Africa, and particularly in KwaZulu-Natal where many reside.

“I am bringing the word of the Lord to the people of Indian descent who live in South Africa and are citizens of South Africa.

“There will be no more Chatsworth, no more Phoenix. The waters that will heat [all the Indian areas in Durban] will all heat at once and no one corrupt will survive. It will all happen in one night. The Lord is saying there will be floods in Westville, where the elite of the elite of the Indians live.”

She claimed the temples in which the Indian community worship are not “the temples of God” and asserted the population discriminates against black people.

The South African Hindu Maha Sabha said it had received several complaints about the “offensive, racist TikTok video” attacking Hinduism and Indians in South Africa. 

It said it has lodged a formal complaint with the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) and the Commission for the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Cultural, Religious and Linguistic Communities (CRL Rights Commission).

“A commitment to nonracialism is a founding principle of the constitution. The constitution entrenches the right to freedom of religion and worship,” read a statement by Maha Sabha president Ashwin Trikamjee.  

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