Police fired rubber bullets and stun grenades to disperse striking security guards who went on the rampage in central Cape Town and outside Parliament on Tuesday.
Several injuries were reported and dozens of shop windows were broken, goods looted and cars trashed as about 5 000 strikers made their way to Parliament to hand over a memorandum in support of wage and working-conditions demands.
At least one journalist covering the march, under the banner of the South African Allied and Transport Workers’ Union (Satawu), was assaulted by protesters.
After handing the memorandum to officials at Parliament, the group started breaking up, running in different directions, pursued by police.
Several shots were fired and police were seen making arrests as a helicopter circled overhead. Further shots from around the city centre could be heard for some time afterwards.
An eyewitness said strikers running down Buitenkant Street had tried to set a car alight, and police fired rubber bullets. One marcher, struck by what appeared to be a rubber bullet, ”went down like a ton of bricks”, he said.
A South African Press Association (Sapa) reporter at the scene said there were hardly any shops without broken windows along the two blocks of Roeland Street from the entrance to Parliament.
Marchers, many armed with steel pipes, sticks and pick-axe handles, ripped windscreen wipers and mirrors off cars parked in Plein Street outside Parliament, and smashed windows of cars and shops, grabbing merchandise.
Some used uprooted road signs to vandalise cars, while other kicked in doors. Their fellow marchers ignored them.
Others were seen making threatening gestures at bystanders; one dragged his finger across his throat, pointing at security staff on duty at one of the entrances to Parliament.
”We’ll be back,” marchers told a shop owner as they shattered his shop window.
Western Cape Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) secretary Tony Ehrenreich addressed the crowd outside the main gates, calling for marchers to be disciplined.
Only metres away from the platform on which he stood, glass from broken shop and vehicle windows lay mixed with litter from overturned waste bins.
Taking cover
Independent Democrats leader Patricia de Lille and councillor Simon Grindrod took cover behind the steel gates of a Plein Street entrance to Parliament as strikers threw stones at the adjacent buildings.
”I think this strike has gone on too long. People are beginning to lose sympathy with the strikers,” De Lille said. ”A solution must be found. Labour Minister Membathisi Mdladlana must intervene.”
A worker at an internet café in Roeland Street expressed his disgust at the strikers’ conduct as he cleared away broken glass. ”I think it’s pathetic,” he said. ”I think it [the strike] must end now, or they must give people the percentage [wage increase the strikers are asking for].”
It is not right for other people’s businesses to bear the brunt of the strikers’ discontent, he added.
Shocked car owners, meanwhile, shook their heads in disbelief as they approached their smashed vehicles. One man was seen wiping broken glass from the driver’s seat and shaking out the floor mat as his female companion kept wiping her eyes and onlookers gathered around.
He then banged the driver’s door shut in apparent anger and sped off as a smattering of security guards scattered out of the way.
Groups of marchers laughed, danced and clapped hands as shaken car owners fetched their mangled vehicles from among the crowd and drove off.
Police Captain Randall Stoffels said initial, unconfirmed reports were that about 100 vehicles were damaged by the strikers. Cars were damaged in Keizergracht, Darling, Plein, Roeland and Buitenkant streets.
Injuries were reported on the part of strikers and police, but Stoffels had no immediate detail on that, nor on the extent of damage to shops. He said arrests were made, but did not have numbers.
Stoffels said the strikers were after 2pm still dispersing to train stations and bus depots around town. Police were keeping a close watch on them.
Journalist attacked
Earlier, a Sapa journalist was attacked by protesters as he was covering their march through the city centre.
Reporter Wendell Roelf was hit on the head with a sjambok, suffered a deep gash to one leg and pelted with rocks. He was taken to hospital, where his leg was stitched.
Soon after the start of the march, police acted against marchers as they overturned food and vegetable stalls. The marchers were a breakaway group from the main body. The incident occurred outside the Grand Central shopping complex.
Many shops in the city centre shut their doors, and hawkers packed up their stalls, in anticipation of the march.
Previous Satawu marches in Cape Town and other cities have been marred by violence by striking guards, who are pressing for a better pay deal.
Earlier on Tuesday, Satawu said the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration had called on the guards to halt their month-long protest. — Sapa