The Hindu : Racial overtones in Indian's murder

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, May 31, 2002

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International

Racial overtones in Indian's murder

Durban May 30. A violent robbery leading to the murder of an Indian-origin businessman here has acquired racial overtones after the miscreants were heard shouting the name of a Zulu playwright whose song has been accused of inciting racism against Indians.

Ismail Ahmed, the owner of a supermarket, was shot dead by a group of 15 armed persons who stormed the supermarket in the predominantly Indian suburb of Chatsworth in Durban last evening.

Eye-witnesses at the scene of the robbery say they heard the gunmen shouting, ``Ngema, Ngema'', a reference to playwright and musician Mbongeni Ngema who has written an song accusing Indians of racism.

A local leader, Visvin Reddy, said, ``it was obvious that Ngema's hate-song has contributed to feelings of racial hatred against the Indian community and criminals are taking advantage of the atmosphere to target Indian businessmen.''

``This matter has to be thoroughly investigated by the authorities,'' Reddy added.

The police spokesperson, Vishnu Naidoo, said they had heard about the claims of ``racism'' but at this stage they had no evidence to show that it was a ``racially-motivated'' robbery.

``Our evidence shows that it's a clear case of robbery. Our detectives are working around the clock to apprehend the suspects,'' said the police officer.

The anti-Indian song has already been raised in the national Parliament in Cape Town where a member of the ruling ANC has called on the singer to withdraw the song from the airwaves and apologise for promoting racial hatred.

The Human Rights Commission, probing the matter, has referred it to the Broadcasting Complaints Commission (BCC) of South Africa.

``The lyrics of the song do not comply with the current code of BCC and we may argue that it constitutes hate speech. The BCC must deal with the song,'' the Human Rights Commissioner, Jody Kollapen, said, adding that the Commission had received several complaints about the lyrics of the song.

``It is important to recognise that freedom of expression is enshrined in our constitution. This right, however, does not extend to advocacy of hatred based on race, religion or gender,'' he said. PTI

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