The 2019 service delivery protests refers to a series of protests and civil disturbances taking place across urban areas of South Africa related to poor service delivery that started in

Alexandra Alexandra () is the feminine form of the given name Alexander (, ). Etymologically, the name is a compound of the Greek verb (; meaning 'to defend') and (; GEN , ; meaning 'man'). Thus it may be roughly translated as "defender of man" or "prot ...

on 3 April 2019. After starting in Alexandra on 3 April the protestors marched to the wealthy nearby neighbourhood of Sandton five days later to gain more attention. On 9 April the trade union SAFTU stated their support for the protests and called on other areas in Gauteng province to join. By 11 April 2019 the protests had spread to other major cities in the rest of the country. Other than Alexandra protests occurred in Hammanskraal, Roodepoort, Vereeniging, Kroonstad, Blackheath, Tshwane,

Bekkersdal Bekkersdal is a township situated 7 km east of Westonaria and 14 km south of Randfontein in the Gauteng province. It was established in 1945, to house Africans who worked in town and at the surrounding gold mines. In 1983 The year ...

Orange Grove Orange Grove may refer to: General *An orchard of cultivated orange trees, in the United States often called an orange grove Places and buildings Australia * Orange Grove, New South Wales * Orange Grove, Western Australia South Africa * Orange ...

Nomzamo Lwandle/Nomzamo is a small township in the Helderberg basin just outside Strand in the Western Cape of South Africa. Both names are sometimes used interchangeably referring to both places. This may be attributed to the fact that Nomzamo was bor ...

Lingelethu East, Bergville,

, Caledon, Eersteriver, Rus-ter-Vaal, Khayelitsha, Riverlea, and Soweto. The major political parties traded accusations over the cause of the riots. The African National Congress (ANC) accused the Democratic Alliance (DA) of not effectively delivering services to the protesting communities and the DA made a counter accusation that it was ANC governance in Johannesburg two years before was the root cause of poor service delivery in Alexandra. The protests were openly supported by the trade union SAFTU who called on other areas to join the protests. The DA and

Economic Freedom Fighters The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) is a South African left-wing to far-left pan-Africanist and Marxist–Leninist political party. It was founded by expelled former African National Congress Youth League (ANCYL) President Julius Malema, and hi ...

(EFF) accused the ANC of instigating and spreading the protests to discredit them in the run up to the 2019 South African general election. Notable South African academic Steven Friedman, criticised media coverage of the protests for "denigrat ngpoor people by offering a distorted picture of their lives" and supporting politically motivated narratives that the protests were incited by political parties instead of being driven by genuine grievances.

References

{{Political history of South Africa 2019 protests 2019 in South Africa 2019 murders in South Africa April 2019 crimes in Africa April 2019 events in South Africa Riots and civil disorder in South Africa Civil disobedience in South Africa Protests in South Africa History of Johannesburg

See also

References