A complaint against eThekwini Mayor Cyril Xaba has been lodged with the South African Human Rights Commission.
Image: Siyabulela Duda / GCIS
FOLLOWING a heated exchange between eThekwini Mayor Cyril Xaba and activist Yeshelen Govender, a formal complaint has been lodged with the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC).
On Friday, Visvin Reddy, a member of the uMkhonto weSizwe Party in the National Assembly, lodged a formal complaint with the SAHRC in KwaZulu-Natal.
He said this was done in his personal capacity, as a citizen and public representative.
Reddy, in his complaint said Mayor Xaba’s “conduct and explicit utterances” constituted a severe violation of the foundational principles of South Africa as enshrined in Section 9 (right to equality) and Section 10 (human dignity) of the Constitution.
“By categorising a South African citizen of Indian descent as ‘not an African’ and stripping him of his right to participate in a public civic engagement based on his race, the mayor engaged in unfair discrimination and a direct assault on inherent human dignity.”
Reddy said Mayor Xaba’s remarks deliberately imply that South Africans of Indian descent are mere “visitors” or “guests” who lack a rightful claim to an African identity.
“The South African Indian community is an integral, permanent part of the demographic, cultural, and political fabric of this continent. They are African by birth, heritage, and constitution.”
Visvin Reddy.
Image: Supplied
Reddy said it was an insult to liberation history and social cohesion.
“This community shed blood in the trenches of the anti-apartheid struggle alongside Black compatriots to build a democratic, non-racial South Africa. For the ‘First Citizen’ of eThekwini to draw primitive racial lines - determining who is ‘African’ enough to speak in a public municipal forum is historically illiterate, deeply divisive, and actively stokes Indo-African tensions in a historically sensitive province,” he said.
Reddy added that the preamble of the country's Constitution explicitly states that “South Africa belongs to all who live in it, united in our diversity”.
“The mayor's gatekeeping of African identity directly flouts this foundational value.”
Reddy called on the SAHRC to institute a full-scale investigation into this incident.
He further called for a formal finding declaring the mayor's statements as racially discriminatory, exclusionary, and harmful to social cohesion, and an order compelling him to issue a full, unconditional public apology to Govender.
Reddy said the SAHRC should also make an order or recommended directive compelling Mayor Xaba to pay a financial penalty or fine of R30,000 to be split equally and paid directly to non-profit humanitarian organisations, such as Divine Life Society, Food for Life, and Gift of the Givers.
He said the matter should also be referred to the appropriate municipal and political structures for a code of conduct evaluation regarding public office bearers.