September 3, 2020
“We are deeply shocked by and grieve the death of Zhong and his wife. It was the first time that we felt death so close to us,” said Wang Wei, an employee of a Chinese company in Johannesburg for the last five years.
Wei is referring to the murder of Zhong Zhiwei and his wife, the former president of the Township Association of East China’s Shandong Province in South Africa. They were both shot dead in broad daylight in Johannesburg on August 13, according to the Global Times.
A total of seven Chinese citizens were specifically targeted and murdered in South Africa in the past 50 days. The Chinese Embassy in South Africa has condemned the crimes and urged the South African government to do more.
The Chinese Embassy has also alerted its citizens about the deteriorating security situation in South Africa amid the COVID-19 pandemic in the country.
South Africa is one of the most racist and dangerous countries in the world and the government has actively taken steps to seize white-owned lands and redistribute them to black South Africans, according to ABC News.
Hatred toward the Asian and Caucasian populations is growing in frequency in South Africa. Recently, a 71-year-old Caucasian grandmother died of shock after she was forced to watch all three of her granddaughters being raped at gunpoint at her home in KwaZulu-Natal province, South Africa back in late June, according to the Daily Mail.
Zhu Yiyuan, Chairman of the African Chinese Woman Association and Consultant of the Consular Protection Affairs of the Chinese Consulate General in Johannesburg stated the Chinese are easy targets because they usually have cash on them and they work from early morning to late at night—when crimes are more likely to happen, reported Global Times.
The Chinese, Indian, and European communities have helped South Africa technologically over the years, which allowed South Africa to become more advanced than other African nations as a result. The Chinese Embassy has reminded the South African government of these extremely important contributions and warned them.
Khehla Sitole, the national commissioner of the South African Police Service, said the police have attached the highest priority to investigating the crimes and will update the Chinese Embassy on progress in the cases, according to China Daily.
So far, four of seven cases have already been solved, and 10 suspects have been arrested.
Feature Images via Global Times & China.org