[DEBATE] : South Africa: Angry Soweto Clashes

[Sean Jacobs]

September 4, 2007
World Briefing | Africa
South Africa: Angry Soweto Clashes
By MICHAEL WINES

Police officers fired water cannons and rubber bullets at about 500 
protesters in Soweto after crowds gathered in two neighborhoods, Protea 
and Kliptown, to complain about municipal services. The Kliptown 
protest was calm, but the Protea crowd blocked a highway and threw 
stones at the police and journalists, sending one photographer to a 
hospital. One protester was killed when a bakery van accidentally 
backed over him; several others were arrested. Protests over poor 
services have become common in the country’s poorest neighborhoods as 
the government struggles to provide water, power and other basic 
utilities to shantytowns and low-income areas.

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Sean Jacobs
http://theleoafricanus.blogspot.com