By Naadiya Adams

The South African Human Rights Commission have started its hearing into the unrest in July in Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal, which saw the death of over 200 people and economic losses of billions of rand as businesses were looted and torched.

The first day of the hearings kicked off with testimony from Pietermaritzburg residents who live in the Khan Road Corner Informal Settlement.

In an interview with Radio Islam the commission’s Gushwell Brookes says the commission is set to assess the vast violations of human rights that occurred during the unrest.

He says while there are criminal elements at play which are under investigation by SAPS and the NPA, the commission is focused on its own mandate.

“The South African Human Rights Commission has a specific mandate from our constitution, to protect and promote for the attainment of human rights,” said Brookes.

The allegations of human rights violations are vast but the commission has been clear that the inquest remains inquisitorial as opposed to prosecutorial. Gushwell shared insight into some of the rights that may have been violated

“The lack of freedom of security for the person being respected, the role of the state as well as South African Police Services as well intelligence services from not protecting people adequately, all the way through to the fact that many poor people went out and looted and grabbed some of the most basic food items so poverty definitely is a catalyst to this,” explained Brookes.

Brookes also made reference to the Phoenix killings where he said the commission has a lot of ground to cover as the allegations of murder and assault on the basis of race shows remnants of apartheid South Africa.

“There was an absolute failure by the state to secure and that’s the duty of the SAPS and the intelligence services,” said Brookes.

According to Brookes the Constitution outlines an individual’s right to be kept safe, and to have your business be kept safe as well. Other rights that were violated is the freedom of trade and labour rights.

Phoenix in focus

Earlier on Tuesday, a Phoenix resident who testified at the South African Human Rights Commission’s day 1 of hearings into the July unrest said that residents were only defending themselves.

Sham Maharaj appeared at the investigative hearings into the anarchy in Phoenix where 36 people died in what is believed to be racially inspired attacks.

In his testimony, Maharaj said that they were only thwarting the looting and protecting their area.

“You could see what was happening and everyone panicked because the messages that were being put out were that, ‘your street, your house is next’, so what options do you have but to turnout and make sure that nobody comes to do anything funny?”

The inquest will resume on Wednesday 17 November.