‘Violent protests’ in South Africa: understanding service delivery protests

ABSTRACTViolence is a crucial feature associated with service delivery protests in South Africa. The media and scholars have often referred to the rising violence trend in service delivery protests. However, the definition of violent protests is too broad; it fails to paint a correct picture of the violence. Previously, the general tendency was to classify these protests as either peaceful or violent – a simple dichotomy. Therefore, scholars have developed the 3-way formulation of protests as ‘orderly’, ‘disruptive’ and ‘violent’. Although the three-way formulation is the best so far, it conflates damage to property and injury to people as ‘violent protests’. Damage to property, however bad, should not be bracketed together with injury to people. Drawing on qualitative data from low-income communities in Cape Town, South Africa, I consider deliberately vandalising property as ‘vandalistic’ protests and attacks on persons as ‘violent’ protests. Building on the three-fold formulation of service delivery protests, I introduce a new category – the vandalistic protests. I, therefore, argue for a fourfold formulation of protests as ‘orderly’, ‘disruptive’, vandalistic and ‘violent’, which is often the normal order protests evolve. This analysis highlights the need for authorities to swiftly address communities’ grievances to avoid more radical protest tactics. Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).