| QUOTE |
| Protests evoke apartheid era in South Africa By CELEAN JACOBSON, Associated Press Writer Celean Jacobson, Associated Press Writer 2 mins ago STANDERTON, South Africa – Protesters barricaded a major highway with rocks and burning tires Thursday, clashing with police who fired on them with rubber bullets. Youths retaliated with slingshots and threw rocks. The protest evoked images from decades earlier, when township residents took to the streets to fight apartheid. Now the issue is the government's failure to improve the lives of poor South African's since democracy replaced legal racial separation. More than 150 people have been arrested this week in protests that have spread from Standerton, about 90 miles (150 kilometers) southeast of Johannesburg, to at least four other towns in eastern South Africa. On Thursday, a police vehicle was set alight by protesters near a stadium that will be used for next year's World Cup in the provincial capital of Nelspruit, police spokeswoman Sibongile Nkosi said. And miles away in Diepsloot, a poor settlement north of Johannesburg, 19 people were injured when police fired rubber bullets at protesters. Some people believe violent protests should be jettisoned in a developing democracy. Take Ellen Mgaga, an 18-year-old who should be preparing for high school final exams that start next week, but her school is closed because of protests in her town. "It's been bad what they have been doing. How am I supposed to get an education?" Mgaga said as she stood in front of the blackened remains of the library in Sakhile township on the edge of Standerton. The protests have left residents too scared to leave their homes to go to work and nearby businesses have suffered. Government clinics have been closed for fear of staff being targeted, forcing mothers with sick children or ailing old men to walk miles. The residents of Sakhile accuse the mayor and her council of corruption and demand they resign. Most residents have water and electricity but point to the neglected sports field, dirt roads and shacks as signs of how little development there has been. (...) |