Collins Khosa was killed for the temerity of enjoying a beer on his stoop. He was beaten to death and humiliated by South Africa’s security forces who poured beer on his bruised and battered body to send a message to those who dared question their right to enjoy a cold lager during a difficult and stressful time. South Africa banned alcohol and tobacco sales at the beginning of its COVID-19 lockdown; alcohol sales are back as of June 1, but tobacco sales remain prohibited. South Africa has charged more of its citizens for lockdown violations than any other country in the world, over 230,000 of them.

Now the government responsible for Khosa’s death and the pathetic whitewash of an investigation, which cleared those responsible soldiers from the South African Defence Force (SANDF) of all charges, has suggested that the slain Khosa got what was coming to him due to gender inequality (he lacked respect for two female soldiers they claim), and is launching its own Black Lives Matter campaign in solidarity with another black man who lost his life at the hands of the police — George Floyd. Khosa wasn’t alone — thirty-six others were killed between March 26 and May 5 alone (ten in lockdown-related operations).

I don’t think I really have the capacity to process this level of dishonesty and hypocrisy, but I’m going to try to offer some thoughts: we should not let revisionist accounts which divorce Khosa’s death from the authoritarian, militarized prohibitionist lockdown, which saw hundreds of thousands of mostly black and working-class South Africans facing criminal charges, dominate.