Fears of a Race War Brewing in South Africa

Even during continued violence and plundering, South Africans of Indian origin anticipate mob violence as accusations rise on social media; this exists particularly in the KwaZulu-Natal region, which has a substantial proportion of citizens with origins on the Subcontinent of India.

The turmoil started on Sunday, when ousted President Jacob Zuma, the nation’s first Zulu leader, surrendered to correctional services on Thursday to start his 15-month sentence.

Shopping centers and grocery stores in Gauteng Province, including the cities Johannesburg and Soweto, were looted in addition to plundering in the KwaZulu-Natal municipalities of Durban and Pietermaritzburg.

Hundreds of people have already been killed, and groceries are in short supply in Durban, the nation’s third-largest metropolitan.

The Rise of South Africa’s Community Militias 

Citizens and vigilante groups have taken up arms, as authorities are swamped and 25,000 soldiers seem unable to stop the mayhem.

For fear of becoming attacked and plundered by crowds, many large Indian settlements living next to mainly Zulu ones have begun erecting roadblocks and armed patrols.

Hindus in South Africa are increasingly being targeted, according to the Indian news organization WION. Representatives of the Indian diaspora’s houses and stores have also been robbed and torched.

According to a locally-owned online news site, the Army was dispatched to the violent northern part of Durban on Wednesday evening, when multiple individuals were slain. There were smoldering race relations between both the Indian and African populations already.

Local Indian members claim that now the community’s paramilitary acts, which are intended to safeguard members of all races, have no racial motivation, and that there is no conflict among Indians and Africans.

Homeowners, who wished to prevent looters reportedly working there, burned down to one largely black squat camp.

The following video contains horrific scenes. Viewer discretion is advised.

Tensions Between Africans and Indians Reaching a Boiling Point

Tweets with the hashtag #indiansmustfall and #phoenixmassacre have surfaced on social networks, appearing to encourage hate towards Indians and retaliation towards company owners.

Twitter and other social media corporations have been chastised for neglecting to act. Instead of spreading anti-government sentiments, some people are using hashtags to spread generally pro-unity messages as well.

In South Africa, the Indian Ethnic group has a complicated history. Most arrived in the country as indentured servants inside the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Indians faced prejudice both before and after segregation; furthermore, the adolescent Mahatma Gandhi, who resided in South Africa over several years, was politically active in the defense of Hindus liberties.

However, Indians had more advantages than native black Africans, but were frequently the subject of hostility or even worse. In a historically significant pogrom in Durban in 1949, Black African residents attacked the Hindu Community.

Nowadays, relationships between the two groups are generally substantially better. According to per capita income, the Indian population in South Africa is the richest, outstripping white South Africans.

Several African leaders have ties to Indian families, some of which are well-known, such as in the instance of Zuma, who profited from illicit ties with Indian patrons.

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