At least 24 vehicles were burned and shops looted as protests over a court ruling easing access to asylum turned violent in two South African cities on Thursday.
Acting national police commissioner Lt. Gen. Puleng Dimpane said 10 vehicles were torched in Johannesburg’s Soweto township and 14 in Durban, KwaZulu-Natal province, where three people were arrested.
“We will not allow violence, the torching of vehicles that we have seen today, destruction of property, or attacks on people to continue,” she said, adding that those who are behind the torching of these vehicles will be “pursued and will be captured.”
Protests in Soweto and Durban opposed the Constitutional Court’s decision to remove procedural barriers to seeking asylum.
They followed months of anti-immigrant tensions, with demonstrators demanding the deportation of foreigners living in South Africa illegally.
The Soweto violence, which left several burned-out cars lining the streets, erupted near a Home Affairs office in Orlando West, according to metro police spokesperson Xolani Fihla.
No injuries were reported, and officers were checking whether additional vehicles had been burned.
