The use of rubber bullets by South African police against striking public-sector workers in Soweto — erstwhile cauldron of antiapartheid protest — carries a symbolic significance that will send shockwaves through the country. But it also marks a milestone in the slow transition by the ruling African National Congress from being a rebel movement that reflexively backed striking workers to being a government that can’t afford to heed their demands.
Police opened fire with rubber bullets and water cannon after crowds of strikers in the township outside Johannesburg refused to end their blockade of a main road near a hospital that had halted traffic and prevented patients from entering. “Minimum force had to be used,” said police spokeswoman Captain Nondumiso Mpantsha, adding that there were no major injuries.
