Clashes Erupt After Racism Protest at South African School
Clashes Erupt After Racism Protest at South African School
South African police clashed with about 1,200 supporters of the opposition Economic Freedom Fighters party on Friday who were protesting against alleged racism at a Cape Town school.
The protesters gathered outside the Brackenfell High School two hours earlier than their protest permit allowed and the police confronted them with stun grenades, tear gas and water cannons after they threw stones at the school buildings.
Examinations that were due to be written by final-year pupils at the school were postponed a day earlier, Debbie Schaffer, the Education Minister in the Western Cape province, said in an emailed statement.
The protest was the second to be staged at the school this month after reports emerged that invitations to a private gathering for its final-year students had mainly been extended to White pupils.
The EFF, which has a predominantly Black membership and support base, has staged numerous protests over perceived racism -- still a highly sensitive issue in the country more than a quarter-century after White-minority rule ended.
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