(Eagle News) – KwaZulu-Natal provincial executive council member Nonhlanhla Khoza rendered her remarks with a mix of sorrow and outrage on Saturday, May 1 as she, other officials, and family members received the remains of South African native Lindani Myeni who was shot and killed by Honolulu police during a scuffle on the evening of April 14.

“Today, we are supposed to commemorate and celebrate International Workers’ Day. Instead we are here at Oliver Tambo International Airport, to bemoan and mourn the senseless killing of our beacon of hope whose shining light has been extinguished by the brutal hands of policemen.”

Khoza likened the Hawaii incident to the murder of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police saying “it is a sad indictment on Americans that their country continues to be associated with the senseless murder of black people by their police.”

She mentioned the death of Myeni gave little hope that there would be change in policing in the U.S.

The Premier of KwaZulu-Natal,  Sihle Zikalala, also weighed in on the death of Myeni at the hands of Honolulu police.

“Being Black is not a scourge. It is not a crime,” said Zikalala. “But when you consider the conduct of the police in Honolulu, you begin to realise that they’re not taking this incident seriously. They are behaving as if nothing happened. It’s as if this life didn’t matter at all. A person was killed here, not a fly. This was someone’s son, husband, father and friend who died under very questionable circumstances. The least we expect from them is some transparency and accountability.”

Khoza, the head of KZN’s Social Development Department, described Honolulu police as “trigger-happy” and that the Myeni killing “revived the wounds of the horror of the Trans-Atlantic slave trade, Jim Crow, and the public lynching of black people in America.”

 

 

South Africa has also struggled with racism against blacks.

“It has also reminded us of South Africa’s recent horrific past where black people suffered untold brutality and human rights abuses at the hands of the apartheid security forces,” Khoza said.

She urged people to remember civil rights leader, Martin Luther King and said, ” Dr King would also have warned and said, ‘In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends’.”

She acknowledged those in the U.S. who have insisted on justice and have condemned the killing of  Myeni, and remained positive that U.S. President Joe Biden would do the right thing.

“Even though we have lost faith and hope in the Honolulu Police Department because of the insensitive manner in which they have handled this whole matter, we have confidence in U.S. President Joe Biden that as crusader for human rights and justice that he will ensure that justice will finally prevail.”

Premier Zikalala was more direct with his demands on Biden to intervene.

“We are also calling for intervention from the highest office in the U.S. We know that U.S. President Joe Biden has an illustrious history as a crusader for human rights and justice. We are confident that if he could intervene in this case and start asking questions, we would start to see some progress,” Zikalala said.

Ever since Honolulu police released bodycam footage of the incident, law enforcement and legal experts have been debating on related topics from identification procedures to the use of lethal force against Myeni.

One of the three police officers involved continues to recover from his injuries.

(With reports from Alfred Acenas EBC Hawaii-Pacific Bureau, Eagle News Service)