South African Strikes Widen Political Divide in Wine Area

A South African police van weaves through rocks and trash used to barricade the streets of Stofland, as its three occupants monitor a truce brokered with residents of the shantytown after days of violent protests.

Stofland, or Dust Land in Afrikaans, is on the outskirts of the town of De Doorns in the Hex River valley and is home to several hundred families who work as laborers in vineyards. The turmoil that erupted in the area, 150 kilometers (94 miles) northeast of Cape Town, spread to 15 other rural towns in the Western Cape Province this month, claiming the lives of two farmworkers and destroying vines and sheds.