AFRICANS RIOT IN DURBAN

Press, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 27151, 22 September 1953, Page 9

AFRICANS RIOT IN DURBAN

Indian Shops Set On Fire

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) DURBAN, September 20. African mobs set fire to eight Indian stores and damaged and looted at least six others in a wave of rioting in Cato Manor—a native shanty area near Durban, tonight, after an Indian bus driver ran over and killed an African boy. The police fired on looters, and one African was shot dead in the act of setting fire t 0 a shop. The riots were touched off when an African boy tried to board a moving bus owned and driven by an Indian. The boy fell under the rear wheels and was killed instantly. The Indian driver ran to telephone the police station, as hundreds of angry Africans gathered at the scene of the accident. Police who rushed to the spot found that the bus had been set on fire and several Indian shops were ablaze. Africans stoned the police van. Police reinforcements were called, and the whole of the city area was put on the alert against further outbreaks of violence.

By the time the reinforcements arrived in the shanty area, several Indian shops were ablaze. A fire brigade pump broke down while firemen were trying to extinguish one fire. The shop was gutted. Eighty police rushed to the spot were ordered to shoot any Africans found looting or burning. Eighty others, under the District Commandant (Colonel S. P. Muller), combed the hills and shack settlements.

The looters appeared to be acting in small groups. At the bus terminus, several policemen trying to arrest six alleged looters were stoned and attacked with bottles. They fired shots and the attackers dispersed. Colonel Muller said the riots were the worst since the violent Durban riots in January, 1949, when 142 people were killed, including 50 Indians, one European, and 87 Africans.

Tonight the general population of Cato Manor did not take part, although they cheered whenever an Indian shop went up in flames.