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SOUTH AFRICA
Strikers riot, SA union bosses arrested
Posted Thu, 18 May 2006

Cape Town - The South African police have arrested 40 people, including several leaders of the striking security guards who caused chaos in the Cape Town city centre on Tuesday.

Police captain Randall Stoffels confirmed that 38 men and two women had been arrested.

Most of the suspects, leaders of the South African Allied and Transport Workers Union (Satawu) are expected to appear in court later on Wednesday on public violence charges.

The strikers, who have been involved in a wage protest for several weeks, rampaged through the city on Tuesday after delivering a memorandum to parliament.

Western Cape Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) Secretary Tony Ehrenreich had addressed the crowd outside the main gates, calling for calm and discipline, but his appeals fell on deaf ears.

The situation spiralled out of control when thousands of protesters broke loose and began smashing shop and car windows.

Thousands of people fled for their lives as police fired rubber bullets in an attempt to contain the situation.

Meanwhile, South Africa's opposition Democratic Alliance has written to the Speaker of the National Assembly requesting an urgent debate on the action of the strikers "whose destructive and criminal behaviour occurred in the very vicinity of parliament itself". -panapress




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