BUFFALO City mayor Zukiswa Ncitha spoke out this week against the growing tendency to press demands with violence and vandalism.
This was after a crowd in Mzamomhle, Gonubie, burned down a community hall, a development centre and a spaza shop when she tried to address a community meeting there. Witnesses said they were unhappy about the performance of their ward councillor.
On Wednesday, a row over the dismissal of Lukhanji mayor Mncedisi Nontsele turned violent when a crowd claiming to support his cause tried to break up an ANC meeting in Queenstown’s Mlungisi township.
Witnesses say shots were fired, cars were torched and blows were exchanged. A reporter with our sister newspaper in the town, The Rep, was hurt by a flying stone and then hit in the chest by a rubber bullet.
Ncitha’s call is timely. It would be very sad if the trend towards vandalism and violence exhibited in service delivery protests elsewhere in the country was to become a norm here in the Eastern Cape, too.
It would not be a surprising development in the sense that there is much here for disadvantaged communities to complain about, but destroying what little they have would hardly be a positive contribution towards overcoming their backlogs.
Ncitha made an important point when she said in the safe environment of a business breakfast on Human Rights Day that rights go with responsibilities.
It is a point made strongly by the minister of national development planning, Trevor Manuel, when he was in the province a week earlier and one that many ANC leaders have begun to emphasise.
The right to protest goes with a responsibility to do so peacefully.
In the same way, the right to strike goes with the responsibility not to do so at the cost of schoolchildren or hospital patients.
Equally, however, the right to bear elected office or to hold a well-paid government job goes with the responsibility to execute the duties that go with it.
Ncitha and the officials charged with improving lives must take the needs of those they serve seriously and offer more than rhetoric to comfort the disadvantaged.
Twenty years after the fall of apartheid, those it was designed to oppress rightly wonder why their physical circumstances are so little changed.
When they see the improvement in the lives of some who were their neighbours, they are inclined to become resentful and impatient.
We know enough about ourselves, however, to say that if leaders offer genuine reasons for the delays and, most importantly, a credible plan to address them, South Africans will be more patient than violent.
Our Opinion: Violence is not the answer
This was after a crowd in Mzamomhle, Gonubie, burned down a community hall, a development centre and a spaza shop when she tried to address a community meeting there. Witnesses said they were unhappy about the performance of their ward councillor.
On Wednesday, a row over the dismissal of Lukhanji mayor Mncedisi Nontsele turned violent when a crowd claiming to support his cause tried to break up an ANC meeting in Queenstown’s Mlungisi township.
Witnesses say shots were fired, cars were torched and blows were exchanged. A reporter with our sister newspaper in the town, The Rep, was hurt by a flying stone and then hit in the chest by a rubber bullet.
Ncitha’s call is timely. It would be very sad if the trend towards vandalism and violence exhibited in service delivery protests elsewhere in the country was to become a norm here in the Eastern Cape, too.
It would not be a surprising development in the sense that there is much here for disadvantaged communities to complain about, but destroying what little they have would hardly be a positive contribution towards overcoming their backlogs.
Ncitha made an important point when she said in the safe environment of a business breakfast on Human Rights Day that rights go with responsibilities.
It is a point made strongly by the minister of national development planning, Trevor Manuel, when he was in the province a week earlier and one that many ANC leaders have begun to emphasise.
The right to protest goes with a responsibility to do so peacefully.
In the same way, the right to strike goes with the responsibility not to do so at the cost of schoolchildren or hospital patients.
Equally, however, the right to bear elected office or to hold a well-paid government job goes with the responsibility to execute the duties that go with it.
Ncitha and the officials charged with improving lives must take the needs of those they serve seriously and offer more than rhetoric to comfort the disadvantaged.
Twenty years after the fall of apartheid, those it was designed to oppress rightly wonder why their physical circumstances are so little changed.
When they see the improvement in the lives of some who were their neighbours, they are inclined to become resentful and impatient.
We know enough about ourselves, however, to say that if leaders offer genuine reasons for the delays and, most importantly, a credible plan to address them, South Africans will be more patient than violent.
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