MOHLAKENG, South Africa —
South Africans
angered by crimes blamed on illegal miners carried out a fresh protest on
Monday and assaulted several workers’ hostels, AFP reporters saw.
اضافة اعلان
More than 300 people gathered in the mining town of
Mohlakeng, around 40km from Johannesburg, they reported.
Around 50 of them, armed with machetes and hammers,
entered three hostels, hauling out mattresses, rugs, chairs, and wardrobes
which they set ablaze.
They then sang an old protest song, meaning “Bring
out the fire brigade, it’s burning here,” while some drank beer.
Several police cars arrived in the afternoon, and
tension fell after talks between demonstrators and law enforcement.
Informal miners, commonly known as “zama zamas”, are
mainly foreigners who come to South Africa to try to earn money from
clandestine pits, living and working in arduous conditions.
Anger against
them flared after eight women were raped on July 28 by gunmen who forced their
way into a music video shoot near Krugersdorp, west of
Johannesburg.
On August 4, thousands of protestors hunted down
miners in Kagiso township, sealing makeshift shafts and burning houses.
The Johannesburg region is dotted with slag heaps,
shafts, and deep trenches left by generations of miners, whose arrival in a
gold rush in the 1880s led to the birth of the city.
Access to these old workings is controlled by gangs
of zama zamas.
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