The rationale of violent public protests in South Africa 's globally-acclaimed democratic dispensation

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.