Five people have been taken into custody as persons of interest after violence involving foreign nationals in Durban, while the Ahmed Kathrada Foundation has called for a transparent investigation into the fatal assault.
A foreign national was allegedly killed by a mob of violent protestors in the Durban CBD on Wednesday.
On Friday police said five people had been taken into custody as persons of interest in the murder.
Police are also investigating a case of attempted murder and the assault of foreign nationals during the protest.
Colonel Robert Netshiunda, spokesperson for KZN police, said the five men were between the ages of 19 and 46.
He said they were taken into custody during ongoing protests outside the Home Affairs offices on Che Guevara Road in Umbilo on Friday afternoon.
“Information at hand at this stage suggests that the five people can assist police in solving cases in which a foreign national was assaulted in the Durban CBD on Wednesday afternoon.
“A case of murder of a foreign national who was assaulted to death in the Durban CBD on Thursday morning, and a case of assault with intent to inflict grievous bodily harm where two foreign nationals were allegedly assaulted by a group of people who were marching in Berea, on Thursday morning.
“The persons of interest are being processed at a police station and further updates will be provided in due course. Investigations are ongoing with police pursuing other persons who are believed to have been involved in acts of violence and other criminality during marches,” Netshiunda added.
In a statement on Friday, the Ahmed Kathrada Foundation said they strongly condemned the brutal killing of the foreign national.
“We demand an urgent, thorough, and transparent investigation. It is critical that the perpetrators - and those inciting these violent crowds - are swiftly identified, arrested, and held fully accountable under the law.
“We urge local communities, leadership, and civil society organizations to exercise maximum restraint, reject divisive and inflammatory anti-migrant rhetoric, and actively counter the spread of unverified information that threatens to spark wider retaliatory violence. South Africa cannot allow vigilantism and fear to replace the rule of law,” the statement read.
The statement stated that the foundation and its members were “deeply shaken deeply shaken by this senseless loss of life.”
“This horrific act occurs amidst months of escalating, highly flammable anti-immigrant marches and rhetoric that have continually threatened to spill over into fatal vigilantism.
“Scapegoating and targeting vulnerable individuals based on their nationality directly violates the core human rights values enshrined in our Constitution, and stands in stark opposition to the non-racial, just South Africa that Ahmed Kathrada and his generation spent their lives fighting to build,” read the statement.