More Than 200 Black Land Squatters Arrested
Heavily armed South African police arrested more than 200 black squatters on land near Johannesburg illegally sold to them by an opposition party.
Police mounted a dawn raid on squatters occupying hundreds of acres of land on the northeastern edge of Johannesburg.
The government has vowed to evict thousands of poor blacks who paid $3.10 each to the Pan-Africanist Congress--a small, black nationalist party--for a plot on a field owned by the state and private farmers.
Of the more than 200 people arrested, 110 face trespassing charges, while three others are accused of violating the Squatters’ Act. The rest were freed without charge.
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