TWENTY-FOUR women — four of them carrying babies — were on Wednesday hauled before the Tonga Magistrate’s Court in Mpumalanga for walking naked in protest against a local chief. The women, aged between 19 and 50, were from Buffelspruit near Malelane. They were arrested on Monday when they demonstrated against Chief Matsamo Shongwe, demanding more land for growing mealies. Stripping by female protesters is regarded in rural areas as a show of contempt and defiance. The women were not asked to plead to charges of public indecency and an illegal march along the Jeppe’s Reef Road leading to the Matsamo border post with Swaziland. they were each granted bail of R500, and the case was postponed to December 20. But they were all remanded in custody because none of them could raise the money, while the four babies were put in the cells with their mothers.