Sibongakonke Shoba
4 September 2007
Johannesburg — ANGRY rioting against the lack of service delivery in Soweto and other areas led to the City of Johannesburg sending a fact-finding team to the townships yesterday after the protests turned violent.
City of Johannesburg spokesman Nthatise Modingoane said the team would assess the situation and establish what the demonstrators were protesting about.
Increased public frustration with poor service delivery has resulted in a spate of violent protests across the country. Scores of people have been arrested for public violence.
Anti-Privatisation Forum organiser Silumko Radebe said yesterday that police clashed with a number of protesters in the Vaal and in Soweto yesterday.
Radebe said a forum organiser was arrested while talking to the media at a scene of a protest in Protea South, Soweto.
"One resident taking part in the protest was knocked down by a car in the road and died instantly," Radebe said.
Police spokeswoman Capt Jacqueline Mbatha said protesters barricaded roads yesterday morning, vandalised lampposts and threw stones. Police responded by firing rubber bullets and water cannon into the crowd .
Mbatha said nobody was arrested in Soweto. Radebe said seven people were arrested during a protest in Kliptown.
Meanwhile, the National Democratic Convention (Nadeco) has condemned the behaviour of the Protea South residents. However, a Nadeco spokesman said the residents were "frustrated" as promises of service delivery had not been fulfilled. With Sapa
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