Protesters demanding better housing clashed with police in Johannesburg townships for the fourth day running on Thursday, raising the pressure on President Jacob Zuma’s government to deliver social services.
Police fired teargas to disperse crowds in Ennerdale township, in the south of Johannesburg, after residents blocked roads with rocks and burnt tyres. Some schools and businesses were closed due to the protests.
The government urged residents to stop the violence, intimidation and looting while pushing their demands.
"The law will reign at the end of the day," Police Minister Fikile Mbalula said.
"What has a protest for housing got to do with people closing down shops and looting shops? It’s got nothing to do with that ... it’s criminality."
The latest bout of protests kicked off in Ennerdale and nearby Eldorado Park townships on Monday.
On Wednesday, residents of an informal settlement in Laudium, west of Pretoria, staged demonstrations demanding that electricity be installed in their homes.
Protests also took place on Thursday around platinum producer Lonmin’s operations in Marikana.
Demonstrators demanding jobs disrupted output, damaged property and intimidated employees, Lonmin said. Production at two shafts had stopped because of the protests, the mining company said.
The persistence of poverty and joblessness 23 years after the end of apartheid is also stoking the anger, often targeting local governments tasked with providing services many blackpeople were deprived of under white-minority rule.
The struggling economy grew by only 0.3% last year.
Unemployment is at 26.5% and many among the black majority population still lack running water, electricity, roads and schools long after apartheid’s demise.
Zuma has come under pressure after a cabinet reshuffle saw finance minister Pravin Gordhan dismissed, triggering national protests last month calling for Zuma to resign after the global ratings agencies S&P Global Ratings and Fitch downgraded the country’s credit rating to subinvestment grade or junk status.
Reuters
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