South African Press Association

South Africa: N1 Remains Closed in Farm Protest

9 January 2013
Photo: Nardus Engelbrecht/SAPA
Protesters in the main road of Swellendam demonstrate for better wages on Thursday, 15 November 2012 during widespread unrest among farm workers that started in De Doorns in the Western Cape and since spread to other towns in the area.

Cape Town — The N1 highway at De Doorns remained closed to traffic on Wednesday afternoon amid continued clashes between farmworkers and the police.

Protesters blocked the road with rocks and threw stones at the police, who retaliated by firing rubber bullets.

The protest forms part of the first day of renewed strike action by workers in demand of a wage of R150 a day. A protester said she had no alternative but to strike, because she could not survive on R60 a day.

Lt-Col Andre Traut said at least 50 people were arrested across the Western Cape on Wednesday on public violence-related charges.

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