Massive Outrage After 8 Models Were Gangraped By 80 Men During Music Video Shoot In South Africa

The backlash against illegal miners in South Africa is gathering pace as local residents formed mobs to beat them and destroy their camps in retaliation for the gang rape of eight young women filming a music video last week.

Miners' camps were torched and roads around the townships of Munsieville and Bekkersdal outside the town of Krugersdorp, west of Johannesburg, were barricaded with rocks and burning tires as residents protested against the presence of illegal miners.

Many of the miners are migrants from other African countries, and the reaction has raised concerns over xenophobia, with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa on Friday condemning the violence.

Around 80 men were arrested last week, mostly illegal miners, after eight women were raped up to ten times each on July 28 during the filming of a gospel music video at a mine dump in the township of West Village was attacked by heavily-armed men. Police said they were investigating 32 counts of rape as well as robbery.

Local residents enraged at the incident torched illegal miners' camps in the neighboring Kagiso township on Thursday and attacked miners whom they stripped naked and beat before handing them over to the police.