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GroundUp reports that about 400 seasonal workers were forcefully evicted from their homes in Hankey in the Eastern Cape by local residents following violent clashes at an informal settlement in the town last week.
According to police, two South Africans and one Lesotho national were killed as a result of the violence. Several shacks at the Mountainview informal settlement, home to many migrant workers, were also burnt down. The conflict appears to have had a racial element in that the permanent residents of Hankey are Xhosa while the migrants are mostly Sotho or from Pondoland. Kouga Municipality’s Deputy Mayor Hattingh Bornman reported that a delegation from Lesotho came on Saturday with buses to transport 181 Lesotho nationals back home. The SA government provided buses for South African citizens from rural areas in the province and from Free State. According to police, the clashes between local residents and migrant workers mostly from Lesotho were sparked by the murders of two people from Centerton, another township in Hankey. Police spokesperson Colonel Priscilla Naidu said that community members from Centerton marched to an area predominantly occupied by seasonal farm workers from Lesotho. “When this group tried to attack, the seasonal workers from Lesotho retaliated by throwing stones at them. Centerton residents allege that the foreign nationals are responsible for the deaths of two people. These murders took place during the early hours of [29 May] in Centerton. In both murders, the motive and suspects are unknown,” Naidu indicated. She said several shacks were set alight and police vehicles pelted with stones during the protest. Police escorted Mountainview residents out of the area on 1 June to a neighbouring area for their safety.
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Joseph Chirume at GroundUp
- Read too, Lesotho farm workers flee after clashes with locals in Eastern Cape, at TimesLive
Get other news reports at the SA Labour News home page