Several thousand protesters in South Africa’s main city, Johannesburg, have demanded greater economic power for black people.
The demonstrators waved placards calling for the nationalisation of mines in order to reduce the influence of white-owned businesses.
The governing party’s youth wing organised the protest under the theme “economic freedom in our lifetime”.
White minority rule (apartheid) ended in South Africa in 1994.
The African National Congress (ANC) government has been battling to curb rising poverty and unemployment after leading a decades-long struggle against apartheid, which discriminated against black people.
Higher Education Minister Blade Nzmande said on Thursday that unemployment in South Afrca stood at about 40% and was much higher among youth.
‘Killing the goose’Several schools in Johannesbrg’s black townships were empty as pupils joined the march to the headquarters of the Chamber of Mines and the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE), the Sapa news agency reports.
Protesters chanted “Shoot the boer [Afrikaner]”, in defiance of a court ruling that outlawed the liberation-era song as inciting racial hatred.
Let’s ask Zimbabwe how this turns out…
(Source: dynamicafrica)
