Soldiers and Police fight each other in Pretoria streets

 

By Christopher Szabo -

  August 26 2009 – PRETORIA, South Africa. Fighting has broken out between members of the South African National Defence Union (SANDU) and the South African police on the lawns of the seat of parliament – the Union Buildings. The fighting has also spread to the streets of Pretoria.

SAPA just published this picture of an ‘unconscious soldier’ taken by a SAPA stringer during the street battle between the police and the SA soldiers. Order from: http://www.sapapics.co.za/preview.cfm?ID=11094

Szabo reports that about 3,000 members of the (South African Military) union ignored police barricades and stormed through them in the South African capital, Pretoria today. Independent Online reported that the SANDU members broke through gates and forced their way onto the Union Buildings lawn demanding that President Jacob Zuma attend to their demands. The defence ministry had obtained a court interdict to prevent the march, but the porportedly ‘illegal march’ went ahead anyway.

Read the rest of his article – and vote for it – on

• http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/278306#tab=comments&sc=0&contribute=&local=

Strike not illegal

The South African National Defence Force Union obtained the right to strike and hold public protest meetings in a High Court decision which was ratified by the Constitutional Court - http://www.saflii.org/za/cases/ZASCA/2006/92.html

MORE PICTURES CAN BE ORDERED FROM THE  S.A. PRESS ASSOCIATION:

http://www.sapapics.co.za/preview.cfm?ID=11096

Associated Press just published this picture on the left, showing police fire teargas and rubber bullets at protesting soldiers near the Union Building in Pretoria, South Africa, Wednesday, Aug. 26, 2009, as police tried to stop members of the defense force from marching on the Union Buildings, the seat of government, to protest low wages. Earlier, a court had denied soldiers permission to hold their march but about 3,000 protesters later converged on the lawns below the government building.(order from Associated Press picture number 090826015803)