JOHANNESBURG - South African protesters have become more violent in the last few years.

This is according to experts who believe that the violent protests which had occurred during the apartheid era have made a comeback over the past five years.

According to statistics compiled by the  SA Institute of Race Relations (SAIRR), since last year there have been over a thousand incidents of unrest during strikes.

Going back to 2010, during the three-week public servants strike, there were cases of intimidation, the  forced closure of schools and hospitals, attacks on non-striking staff as well as the deaths of at least six patients deprived of medical care.

Various strikes in the private sector have also turned violent.

Speaking to The Super Saturday Citizen earlier this week, Anthea Jeffery from SAIRR said that because there had never been a penalty for violence during strikes, the violence continued.

In February 2011, for example, during a strike called by the South African Transport and Allied Workers’ Union (Satawu), strikers assaulted truck drivers still at work, dragged others from their trucks, and forced trucks off the roads.

In one incident, the owner of a private courier company who had nothing to do with Satawu’s dispute was ambushed by strikers who threw rocks at his vehicle from an overhead bridge and then dragged him from behind the wheel before hitting him repeatedly with a metal pipe, broken glass and sticks, causing multiple fractures to his skull. 

In July 2011 a strike by the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa over wage demands was also accompanied by intimidation and attacks.

According to the Steel and Engineering Industries’ Federation of South Africa, striking engineering workers moved from company to company in search of non-strikers’ and there were continuing reports of violence and intimidation. 

One person was killed in strike-related violence.