KwaZulu-Natal police are struggling to contain a violent protest which has engulfed the farming district of eShowe. The protest is a backlash after a man who was fishing on a farm dam was shot and killed on Tuesday‚ allegedly by security guards.

Police spokesperson Captain Mbongeni Mdlalose said that the 30-year-old man had been on the property of a farmer at the time of the incident. "There is an allegation that the man was fishing in a dam on one of the farms in the area when he was confronted by officials from a security company who patrol the area. There was a shooting and the man was killed‚” he said.

He said that following the death‚ the local community had rallied and blocked the P230 and the R66 roads in an apparent act of retribution. “They had blocked the road completely and we had to call in our members from the public order policing unit. We managed to disperse them and they left the area‚” Mdlalose said.

“The story got out that a farmer had shot the man so they went to a farm outside eShowe and torched a sugarcane plantation and a farm house. Even now the farm house is burning‚” he said.

Initial reports suggested that a boy had been killed.

Mdlalose added that one security guard had been detained by police and was expected to appear in the eShowe Magistrate’s court on Friday.

This is a developing story.