Sunday Times 2
Unrest in S.Africa township after polls
View(s):JOHANNESBURG, May 10, (AFP) – South African police said today they arrested around 60 rioters after violent protests in a Johannesburg township amid allegations of voter fraud in elections that returned Nelson Mandela’s ANC to power.
Rivalry reminiscent of the twilight of apartheid had flared up between the African National Congress and Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) shortly after the polls on Wednesday.
The IFP and EFF parties have made claims of vote-rigging in Johannesburg’s Alexandra township, where angry residents on Friday burned tyres and barricaded roads, and the army was deployed to help quell the unrest, police said.
“Since yesterday (Friday) 59 people have been arrested for public violence,” police spokesman Neville Malila told AFP.
Police used stun grenades and rubber bullets to disperse a crowd of up to 400 people, said Malila.
“Last night there was army deployment,” he said, adding that police remained in the restive former blacks-only area.
No casualties were reported and national police spokesman Solomon Makgale said the rest of the country was calm.
The military left the township this morning, defence ministry spokesman Siphiwe Dlamini confirmed. An AFP photographer saw armoured police vehicles patrolling streets littered with debris and charred remains of election posters.