The unprecedented conflicts, violence, looting and the destruction of infrastructure witnessed in the month of July 2021 and the resultant deaths in the Province of KwaZulu-Natal necessitated the two Commissions, namely, the Commission for the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Cultural, Religious, and Linguistic Communities (CRL Rights Commission) and the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) to facilitate interventions in line with their respective mandates. Also, these interventions are in line with the President’s clarion call for all structures and organizations to do everything within their powers and mandates to contribute towards the rebuilding, reconstruction, stabilizing and normalizing of communities through partnerships and collaborative efforts that can facilitate peace, stability and community integration. 

Accordingly, both Commissions have agreed to work collaboratively, whilst pursuing their respective mandates, thereby assisting to bring about peace and stability in KZN.

In the case of the CRL Rights Commission this intervention is in line with the Constitution and the CRL Rights Commission Act number 19 of 2002 which mandates the Commission to (a) promote respect for and further the protection of the rights of cultural, religious and linguistic communities;  (b) promote and develop peace, friendship, humanity, tolerance and national unity among and within cultural, religious and linguistic communities, on the basis of equality, non-discrimination and free association; (c) foster mutual respect among cultural, religious and linguistic communities; and (d) promote the right of communities to develop their historically diminished heritage.

For that reason, the intervention by the CRL Rights Commission is largely focused on fact finding to facilitate the resolution of friction between and within the identified communities or between any such community and an organ of state where community rights are affected, in the interest of promoting social cohesion, unity and co-existence among and between the afflicted communities.

As a result, the CRL Rights Commission will continue its second leg of its engagements in KZN from 07 – 10 September 2021. It is at the conclusion of these engagements with relevant communities in KZN, that the CRL Rights Commission will bring relevant matters to the attention of the appropriate authority or organ of state, and where appropriate, make recommendations to such authority or organ of state in dealing with such matters to assist the affected communities to live in accordance to the spirit of the Constitution as also reflected in the CRL Rights Commission’s Act 19 of 2002.

Similarly, in line with its mandate to protect, promote, monitor and assess the observance of human rights, the intervention of the SAHRC will seek to understand the conditions that led to the unrest.  Already, the SAHRC hosted an Imbizo with the public on 23 July 2021 as part of its efforts to understand and respond to the unrest, and the subsequent human rights impact arising from it. In this regard, the Commission had, through its ongoing presence in the two affected provinces, made community interventions and had undertaken fact finding visits to various affected communities.

The SAHRC has also received various complaints in relation to the unrest and has taken note of tensions that ensued or were exacerbated within and between affected communities. Consequently, the SAHRC resolved, amongst others, to launch a National Investigative Hearing to address some of the concerns emerging from the July Imbizo, the complaints it received and the monitoring efforts that it conducted in the affected areas.  The findings of the National Investigative Hearing will inform the Commission’s recommendations and directives.  Particularly, some of the issues and concerns which the Commission has resolved to probe through the investigation include:

• The role and effectiveness of law enforcement agencies in preventing or containing the unrest and maintaining public order. 
• The underlying factors which have contributed to the unrest, looting and violence. 
• Recommendations and directives, where required, for the short, medium and long-term measures to be adopted by relevant stakeholders and the state to address the resultant human rights violations and to address the prevailing circumstances giving rise to various violations of rights as reflected in the Bill of Rights. 

The efforts of the CRL and the SAHRC, while similarly aimed at restoring social harmony, peace and stability in the affected communities, seek to address the prevailing conditions through their different mandates.

The two Commissions will continue to liase and work with each other as well as engage with the various stakeholders in KZN and elsewhere to help bring about lasting peace, stability, justice, and development in the affected communities.

Issued jointly by the CRL RIGHTS COMMISSION AND THE SOUTH AFRICAN HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION