[Bhpbilliton] BHP Protests in S. Africa Lead to 68 Arrests, SAPA Reports

[Mia Pepper]

If anyone does have more info... and or a contact for someone in South Africa.... we'd love to do an interview on this for the Radioactive Show.... please e-mail me here at bar_barrick at yahoo.com.au or at ras3cr at yahoo.com.au

ta. Mia

--- On Sat, 20/2/10, Andy Whitmore <comms at piplinks.org> wrote:

From: Andy Whitmore <comms at piplinks.org>
Subject: [Bhpbilliton] BHP Protests in S. Africa Lead to 68 Arrests, SAPA Reports
To: Bhpbilliton at lists.resist.ca
Received: Saturday, 20 February, 2010, 7:53 AM





  


 Anyone got any more information on these stories...?




 


BHP Protests in S. Africa Lead to 68 Arrests, SAPA Reports



By Mkhululi Mancotywa, Bloomberg



19 February 2010 



Sixty eight people were arrested and 21 injured in
protests against BHP Billiton Ltd. yesterday in Ogies, a town in the
eastern South African province of Mpumalanga, the South Press
Association said, citing a police spokesman.



Among the injured were three police officers who were hit by stones and
bottles and 18 protesters who were hurt by rubber bullets, the news
agency said. The protesters were demanding job’s at BHP’s Klipspruit
coal mine in Ogies. 







21 injured, 61 arrested in Ogies protest



http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=594&art_id=nw20100218174243252C140008



18 February 2010 



Twenty-one people were injured and 61 were arrested in Ogies,
Mpumalanga, on Thursday in protests against BHP Billiton - the second
violent action targeting a mining company in the past two weeks, police
said.



They included three police officials, who were injured on the shoulder,
mouth and head when stones and bottles were thrown at them, said
Captain Leonard Hlathi.



Hlathi said the police had to fire rubber bullets to disperse crowds
burning tyres and barricading roads with bottles, dustbins and road
traffic signs.



"Eighteen protesters were bruised from the rubber bullets. We have
arrested 61 people for public violence," he said, adding that all the
main roads in the Phola township, in Ogies, were closed.



"They [the protesters] want to draw attention from BHP Billiton. They
are claiming there were several meetings with BHP Billiton and they are
claiming BHP Billiton is not employing people from Phola township,"
said Hlathi.



BHP Billiton owns the Klipspruit coal mine in Ogies.



The mine's spokesman Johnny Dladla said 94 percent of the people
employed by the BHP Billiton's Klipspruit colliery were from the
Nkangala district.



"Of these, eight percent are from the local Ogies or Phola township,"
said Dladla.



He said BHP Billiton remained open and committed to continue
discussions with community leaders through the local Community
Development Forum.



Last week, schooling was disrupted and the library set alight in the
Mpumalanga town of Balfour in protests against the local Burnstone gold
mine, which residents accused of not investing enough in infrastructure
development.



Co-operative Governance Minister Sicelo Shiceka was visiting the
Siyathemba township in Balfour on Thursday to check on the situation.



ANC Youth League leader Julius Malema has been in the news repeatedly
lately for saying he believed mines should be nationalised to fund free
education, to the ire of Mining Minister Susan Shabangu, who vowed that
it would not happen in her lifetime. - Sapa



 

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