As the dull thud of plastic bullet shots started to fill the air, Thembi Sibisi became visibly angrier and played with her sjambok – a rawhide whip – in ever more menacing fashion.

Ms Sibisi was one of hundreds of frustrated residents of the Johannesburg township of Thokoza to equip themselves with sticks and other primitive weapons on Tuesday, as yet another protest exploded in one of South Africa’s poor black townships.