South African police fired teargas during clashes Tuesday between the opposition Democratic Alliance and the most powerful trade union in Johannesburg, an AFP photographer said.
Marchers of the DA, angered by youth unemployment over 50 percent, threw stones and bricks, wounding bystanders and damaging cars, as hundreds of them marched on the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) head office.
Clashes broke out when they were met in the streets by supporters of Cosatu, part of an alliance with the ruling African National Congress.
DA leader Helen Zille, who led the march, blamed Cosatu for the violence.
"It was terrible. They didn't have permission to march and they used violence to disperse our march," Zille told AFP.
Police fired teargas at Cosatu supporters, dressed in red t-shirts, as they blocked off the DA marchers.
Cosatu spokesman Patrick Craven said the union "regretted the fact that there was an element of violence," but pointed out that supporters of both groups had been wounded.
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