Foreigners targeted in riots as poverty rises
Local media reported that the Ethiopian, Pakistani and Indian shopkeepers whose premises were looted had taken refuge in apartments near Balfour's police station
Johannesburg: South Africans angry at squalid living conditions burnt tyres and barricaded roads in a northern township yesterday, a reminder of the social problems that persist 20 years after the release of Nelson Mandela.
Armed police patrolled the streets of Balfour in Mpumalanga province, but said they did not fear a repeat of the previous day's unrest in which 22 people were arrested for torching municipal buildings and attacking shops owned by foreigners.
"They're burning tyres and logs," Sergeant Sam Tshabalala of Balfour police said. "Our officers are monitoring the situation. The whole place is being kept under surveillance."
Local media reported that the Ethiopian, Pakistani and Indian shopkeepers whose premises were looted had taken refuge in apartments near Balfour's police station.
More than 60 people were killed in a wave of anti-foreigner riots that swept across the country in 2008.
Balfour, 80 kilometres southeast of Johannesburg, became a flashpoint last year during widespread demonstrations against poor public services in Africa's biggest economy.
Many poor black South Africans complain that their lives have not improved since Mandela's African National Congress swept to power in 1994, promising to provide jobs, housing and medical care for all.
Despite a decade of strong economic growth up to 2009, official unemployment has remained above 20 per cent and millions of blacks still live in tin-shack shanty towns.
