State must play its role to curb violent protests

Violent service delivery protest is a dangerous double-edged sword. It may draw attention to the plight of communities, but, ironically, it also often hampers meaningful, long-term sustainable service delivery, socioeconomic development and employment.

The recent repeated shutdown of Makhanda is a case in point. Protesters forcibly stopped businesses from operating in an economic environment where most are already battling to survive. It stopped people accessing their employment and children accessing their vital education. It had no effect whatsoever on the municipality except to allow the already inefficient administration and workforce to cease operations altogether.

But people who live in areas presided over by hopeless municipalities like Makana feel they are out of choices. Their voices go unheard by government unless they are raised in fury. Attempts to get province to intervene effectively have failed. Those placed under administration continue to flounder from one crisis to another. Turning for help to a provincial administration that is itself beset by the same inefficiencies and lack of political will to improve peoples’ lives is a vain exercise.

The paucity of service delivery at municipal level in this country is well documented. The annual municipal auditor-general reports lay bare the inefficiencies, the failure to adhere to the legal prescripts of municipal law and the excessive fruitless and wasteful expenditure that result.

The squandering of scarce resources due to inefficiency and corruption is so severe that not much is left to pay for maintenance of or improvements to vital sanitation, water and road infrastructure. And citizens are left to suffer the consequences of this wilful neglect.

While essential services to formerly privileged communities erode at an exponential rate, it has not translated into an extension or enhancement of these services into marginalised communities. Throw into the mix a 74% expanded youth unemployment rate and you have a powder keg waiting for a match.

There are too many angry young people who feel they have nothing left to lose. No wonder they seek other solutions when our democracy has delivered no dividend. They are still without decent shelter, a proper education, adequate nutrition and employment prospects.

After the damaging Zuma years of state capture and wholesale corruption we had a small window of opportunity to turn things around. But the government has no coherent strategy to make any meaningful changes.

Violence is anathema to our democratic state and cannot be tolerated. But, while the government strives always to look the other way, communities will feel they have no choice but to demonstrate violently to draw its attention to their terrible plight.

If we do not develop a caring and capable state we are doomed to become a failed one.