Twitter reacts: ANC calls out police brutality in the US, but what about Collins Khosa?
ANC has called on President Cyril Ramaphosa to engage with the US through diplomatic channels to defuse tensions.
A large crowd of protesters demonstrate outside the Minneapolis Police Fifth Precinct station during the fifth day of protests over the arrest of George Floyd, who later died in police custody, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA, 30 May 2020. A bystander’s video posted online on 25 May, appeared to show George Floyd, 46, pleading with arresting officers that he couldn’t breathe as an officer knelt on his neck. The unarmed black man later died in police custody. Photo by: EPA-EFE/TANNEN MAURY
The African National Congress (ANC) calls for calm during the continuing social unrest in the United States (US) due to the killings of black people by the hands of police was meet with some disdain from some social media users who said the ruling party should also be calling out police brutality in South Africa as well.
The party has called on President Cyril Ramaphosa to engage with the US through diplomatic channels to defuse the tensions sparked by a video showing an unarmed black man, George Floyd, pinned down by the neck by a white police officer in the last moments of his life.
In a statement, the ANC said: “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, a black person jogging, Breonna Taylor, a black person sleeping, and Floyd, a black person encountering police – has sharpened the focus on inescapable realities that American society places a perilously low value on black lives.”
The statement from the ANC statement is commended in the times where leaders and politicians have been urged to show solidarity.
Many did question why the party hadn’t mentioned the deaths allegedly by the hands of police during the lockdown.
One such case is Collins Khosa. An internal inquiry by the South African Defense Force (SANDF) found that soldiers who are accused of killing the Alexandra resident could not be held liable for this death after finding there is no link between the injuries he sustained due to their actions and him dying.
Here are some of the reactions on Twitter on the ANC’s s statement:
11 Black Men were killed by the police during the lockdown period alone. Ramaphosa called it,
“over enthusiasm by the police.” When the ANC calls for his intervention in the US what kind of intervention do they imagine? 11 BLACK MEN!— Ma’Chirwa (@NalediMpungose_) June 2, 2020
https://twitter.com/ParametricCurve/status/1267703108441903104
Haybo what about Collins Khosa? Hypocritical
— Marena Godlo (@free_blacks) June 1, 2020
Solidarity with Floyd is useless if we can't demand justice for #CollinsKhosa
— David Ramatlo (@dave_ramatlo) June 2, 2020
What about #CollinsKhosa? https://t.co/dCQ0CusVUY
— Ntsako (@NanoMad_) June 2, 2020
(Compiled by Sandisiwe Mbhele)
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