Abstract:
The manifestation of violence during the constitutionally protected protest action is
highly questionable and unexpected feature of, the democratic dispensation in South
Africa. Moreover, the right to protest is provided with strong restrictions to violence.
Literature has publicised the reasons advanced for these fierce violent public protests
dominating the democratic state and they are amid the lack of service delivery,
maladministration and political squabbles. However, the geographic area of the
protests questions the legitimacy of the so called service delivery protests.
Notwithstanding, the recent statistics that show an upward increase in the accessibility
of basic services by South Africans. Thus, this study dismisses the idea that the fierce
public protests are as a result of a lack of service delivery, maladministration or political
squabbles. Considering the location of the protests which is mostly in informal
settlements close to metropolitan cities where some services have been provided.
Whereas, the rural communities that receive very minimal, and to some extent no
services have recorded very few protests linked to service delivery. Therefore, this
study locates the violent public protests in the demonstration effect due to the
geographical area and the advanced influence of media. The study used scholarship
analysis to scrutinise the textual data gathered on the rationale underlying the violent
public protests in South Africa’s globally-acclaimed democratic dispensation.
