The library in Balfour's Siyathemba township went up in flames on Tuesday afternoon during a protest that appears to have shifted from labour recruitment demands to an insistence the local mayor resign.
"They are burning the library down," said police spokesperson Sergeant Sam Tshabalala on the third day of violence in the Mpumalanga township.
Earlier in the day, people had made pyres of poles that Eskom had planned to use in the area. On the previous two days, foreigners' shops were looted and a municipal office burnt down.
Mpumalanga's minister of education, Reginah Mhaule, pleaded with local residents to allow schooling to continue unhindered. Pupils were preparing to rewrite some of their matric exams. The province got one of the lowest matric pass rates.
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