S Africans riot over bad services

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Police have fired rubber bullets and stun grenades to disperse hundreds of residents refusing to move from their shacks near South Africa's capital.

The resident of Diepsloot near Pretoria say they would prefer better houses and clean water where they already live.

In recent months, the country has been hit by a number of such demonstrations over a lack of new homes and services.

Next month, the governing African National Congress elects a new leader with poor service delivery a big issue.

The residents in Diepsloot, like in several other black townships across the country, are deeply unhappy with their living conditions.

The BBC's Mpho Lakaje in Diepsloot said that shack dwellers launched their protest by barricading roads and turning away motorists.

Heavily armed police officers in trucks then moved in and as tensions escalated officers fired rubber bullets and stun grenades to try to disperse the angry crowd.

The government has urged residents to protest peacefully against forced removals and poor living conditions.

Some 1.5m homes new homes have been built since 1994, but an estimated 7.5m lack access to adequate housing, according to South Africa's Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions.

But with the ANC preparing to elect a new president, the situation at grass roots level is slowly getting out of hand, our reporter says.

Former Deputy President Jacob Zuma has accused President Thabo Mbeki of failing millions of poor South Africans during his rule. Both are likely to be contenders.