ANC Youth League pickets outside US Embassy over the death of Lindani Myeni

The 29-year-old former rugby star from KwaZulu-Natal was shot dead by police in Hawaii earlier this month after an altercation that has once again put the spotlight on the conduct of police in the United States.

Myeni and his American born wife moved to Hawaii just over a year ago, where they were raising their two young children.

ANCYL NYTT spokesperson  Sizophila Mkhize says the US government must tell the truth about what really happened.

“We believe that justice has not been served at the issue of Lindani.

“The footage that has been released is not complete footage and we have been in communication with the family and part of the things that they are complaining about is that his phone has not been returned even today, the 911 phone records never released so we feel like there is a shady thing going on.

“The US government just wants to shove this case under the blanket and not hold the police that killed Lindani accountable,” says Mkhize.

Earlier this week, KZN Premier Sihle Zikalala said talks were underway with the Department of International Relations and Co-Operation and the Consul-General in the US to bring Myeni’s body back home.

Mkhize says the police that killed Lindani should be arrested.

“We want accountability, we want transparency and we feel like the government is hiding something.

“They are showing us one side and not what really  happened. Black people have been killed in the US for a very long time and one of our own was killed by the man in blue of America and we cannot really keep quiet.

“The government must release all kind of information, be transparent to the communities that are concerned and get the police that killed Lindani to be arrested,” 

She says they are concerned that South Africans are not making enough noise about this death.

“Part of our problem is that even here in South Africa we were so loud when George Floyd was killed and here one of our own has been lost, no noise from the national government, no noise from celebrities.

“It’s like Lindani never existed, it is like he was not killed in the US when he was unnamed by the way,” said Mkhize.

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