South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the ...

has been dubbed "the protest capital of the world", with one of the highest rates of public protests in the world. It is often argued that the rate of protests has been escalating since 2004, but

Steven Friedman Steven Eli Friedman (born 31 March 1953) is a South African academic, newspaper columnist, intellectual, activist, former trade unionist and journalist. He holds a doctorate in Literature from Rhodes University (2007) and directs the Centre for t ...

argues that the current wave of protests stretches back to the 1970s. The rate of protests "rose dramatically in the first eight months of 2012", and it was reported that there 540 protests in the province of

Gauteng Gauteng ( ) is one of the nine provinces of South Africa. The name in Sotho-Tswana languages means 'place of gold'. Situated on the Highveld, Gauteng is the smallest province by land area in South Africa. Although Gauteng accounts for only ...

between 1 April and 10 May 2013. In February 2014 it was reported that there had been "nearly 3,000 protest actions in the last 90 days – more than 30 a day– involving more than a million people". Since 2008, more than 2 million people have taken to the streets in protest every year.

Njabulo Ndebele Njabulo Simakahle Ndebele (born 4 July 1948) is an academic and writer of fiction who is the former vice-chancellor and principal of the University of Cape Town (UCT). On November 16, 2012, he was inaugurated as the chancellor of the Univer ...

argued, "Widespread 'service delivery protests' may soon take on an organisational character that will start off as discrete formations and then coalesce into a full-blown movement". There has been considerable repression of popular protests.Media underplaying police, state brutality
Jane Duncan, ''Sunday Independent'', 26 August 2012 The most common reasons for protests are grievances around urban land and housing.Service-delivery protests getting uglier – report
Nashira Davids, ''The Times'', 11 October 2012SAHRC: People need access to land and housing
Koketso Moetsi, ''The Daily Maverick'', 24 November 2015 It has been reported that "Nearly 75% of South Africans aged 20-29 did not vote in the 2011 ocal governmentelections" and that "South Africans in that age group were more likely to have taken part in violent street protests against the local ANC than to have voted for the ruling party". In September 2013 the police reported that they had "made more than 14,000 arrests at protests in the past four years". According to ''The Times'' "Informal settlements have been at the forefront of service delivery protests as residents demand houses and basic services".

Escalation of popular protests

During the 2004–05 financial year, about 6,000 protests were officially recorded, an unknown number of protests went unrecorded, and about 1,000 protests were illegally banned. This meant that at least 15 protests were taking place each day in South Africa at this time. However the number of protests has escalated dramatically since then and ''Business Day'' reports that "2009 and 2010 together account for about two-thirds of all protests since 2004".Are fiery street protests replacing the vote?
Karen Heese and Kevin Allan, ''Business Day'' There was a dramatic surge in protests shortly after Jacob Zuma first took office and the number of protests was ten times higher in 2009 than in 2004 and even higher in 2010. The number of protests reached an all-time high in 2010–2011 and then a further all time post-apartheid peak in July 2012 with more protests occurring in the

Western Cape The Western Cape is a province of South Africa, situated on the south-western coast of the country. It is the fourth largest of the nine provinces with an area of , and the third most populous, with an estimated 7 million inhabitants in 2020 ...

than in any other province and just under half of all protests occurring in shack settlements. In early 2013 it was reported that popular protest had reached its highest rate since the end of apartheid in 1994. In early 2013 it was argued that there have been as many as 3,000 protests in the last four years. Between 1997 and 2013 most protests were related to labour issues or crime and were only very rarely disorderly. In 2013 the overall number of protests decreased but the rate of disorderly protests increase dramatically. Notable South African journalist Phillip de Wet estimated that nine out of eleven protests were peaceful. In the first five months of 2018 a total of 144 service delivery protests were recorded with the Eastern Cape, followed by Gauteng and the Western Cape provinces having the most protests.

Rebellion of the Poor/Municipal Revolts/Ring of Fire

The Poor People's Alliance Outside the Constitutional Court 14 May 2009

There has been a major wave of popular protests since 2004.Rebellion of the poor: South Africa’s service delivery protests – a preliminary analysis
Peter Alexander, ''Amandla Magazine'', 2010Rebellions of the poor, by the poor, for the poor
, Khadija Patel, ''The Daily Maverick'', May 2011 Just under 40% of all protests take place in shack settlements. There has been a significant degree of repression of popular protests. These protests are usually referred to as "service delivery protests" in the media but although there is evidence of growing unhappiness with service delivery, most analysts argue that this description is overly narrow and misleading."We are Gauteng People" Challenging the politics of xenophobia in Khutsong, South Africa
, Seminar Presentation, Joshua Kirshner, 23 February 2011, Rhodes University A number of poor people's movements have insisted that their protests should not be referred to as "service delivery protests".South African rebellion comes to Grahamstown
Unemployed People's Movement, 2011 But others have termed the rapidly increasing wave of protests since 2004 as a "rebellion of the poor" or a series of "municipal revolts". Zwelinzima Vavi,

COSATU The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) is a trade union federation in South Africa. It was founded in 1985 and is the largest of the country's three main trade union federations, with 21 affiliated trade unions.One Union expelled, ...

Secretary General, has described the increasing rate of popular protests as a "ring of fire" closing in on major cities that could result in a

Tunisia ) , image_map = Tunisia location (orthographic projection).svg , map_caption = Location of Tunisia in northern Africa , image_map2 = , capital = Tunis , largest_city = capital , ...

-style revolution. Some of the most notable protests during this period occurred in

Harrismith Harrismith is a large town in the Free State province of South Africa. It was named for Sir Harry Smith, a 19th-century British governor and high commissioner of the Cape Colony. It is situated by the Wilge River, alongside the N3 highway, ab ...

Kennedy Road, Durban Kennedy Road is an informal settlement in Durban (eThekwini), in the province of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa. Formed in the late 1970s or early 1980s, the settlement was mentioned by the African National Congress (ANC) after the end of apar ...

Diepsloot Diepsloot, Afrikaans for "deep ditch", is a densely populated township in Gauteng, South Africa. It is located in the newly formed Region A (formerly regions 1 and 2) of the City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality. There are high levels of ...

, Balfour,

Thokoza Thokoza, formerly Tokoza, is a township in Ekurhuleni, Gauteng. Thokoza is at the location of the now-defunct Palmietfontein Airport. It is situated south east of Alberton, adjacent to Katlehong. Thokoza was the first black township which was e ...

Khutsong Khutsong is a township on the West Rand of South Africa, and scene of widespread unrest starting in February 2006. It is situated close to the town of Carletonville, in the Merafong City Local Municipality of the Gauteng province. With a terrible ...

Macassar Village The squatter's movement Abahlali baseMjondolo occupied a piece of vacant state owned land in Macassar Village, near Somerset West outside of Cape Town on 18 May 2009. The occupation was later destroyed by the city's anti-land invasion unit. Bac ...

, Lansdowne Road and

Mandela Park Mandela Park is a neighborhood located within the Khayelitsha urban area of the City of Cape Town in the Western Cape province of South Africa. It was established in 1986 under the apartheid Apartheid (, especially South African Eng ...

Khayelitsha Khayelitsha () is a township in Western Cape, South Africa, on the Cape Flats in the City of Cape Town Metropolitan Municipality. The name is Xhosa for ''New Home''. It is reputed to be the largest

, KwaZakhele, downtown

Durban Durban ( ) ( zu, eThekwini, from meaning 'the port' also called zu, eZibubulungwini for the mountain range that terminates in the area), nicknamed ''Durbs'',Ishani ChettyCity nicknames in SA and across the worldArticle on ''news24.com'' from ...

Masiphumelele Masiphumelele is a township on the Cape Peninsula, South Africa, situated between Kommetjie, Capri Village and Noordhoek. Initially known as Site 5, the township was renamed Masiphumelele by its residents, which is a Xhosa word meaning "let us ...

, Ermelo,Ermelo Residents See No Reason to Vote
Diane Hawker, Independent Online, 2010

Grahamstown Makhanda, also known as Grahamstown, is a town of about 140,000 people in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. It is situated about northeast of Port Elizabeth and southwest of East London. Makhanda is the largest town in the Makana ...

and Thembelihle (Lenasia). Protests continue and some analysts take the view that protests are becoming increasingly radical. Some commentators have concluded that "a large majority of South Africans feel that conventional mechanisms of engaging the state are failing, and that alternatives may be more effective". According to Professor Peter Alexander: "As many commentators and activists now accept, service delivery protests are part of a broader Rebellion of the Poor. This rebellion is massive. I have not yet found any other country where there is a similar level of ongoing urban unrest. South Africa can reasonably be described as the 'protest capital of the world'." A number of community organisations and movements have emerged from this wave of protests, some of which organise outside party politics. However, in most cases this wave of protest has not led to sustained organisation.

Protest by trade unions

The national trade union federation,

, has also organised a number of large protests, most notably against labour broking and highway tolls.Cosatu finds a way through the tricky political minefield
Carol Paton, ''Business Day'', 16 May 2012

Protest by workers organised outside trade unions

The 2012

Marikana miner strike The Marikana massacre was the killing of thirty-four miners by the South African Police Service (SAPS) on 16 August 2012 during a six-week wildcat strike at the Lonmin platinum mine at Marikana near Rustenburg in South Africa's North West prov ...

, organised outside the ruling tripartite alliance, resulted in 34 strikers being killed by the police with 78 being wounded on 16 August 2012.

Curtailment of the right to protest

It has been argued that the state is actively seeking to curtail the right to protest.

Notable protests

*The

protests in 2004 *The Kennedy Road road blockade on 19 March 2005 *The

protests during 2006 and 2007 *The N2 Gateway occupations where over 1,000 families occupied unfinished state built houses to protest unfair and corrupt allocation of houses during 2007 and 2008 *The February 2008

Symphony Way Symphony Way Informal Settlement was a small community of pavement dwellers (shack dwellers who live on the pavement) that lived on Symphony Way, a main road in Delft, South Africa, from February 2008 until late 2009. They were a group of famili ...

road occupation which lasted over 1 year and 9 months *The Balfour protest of 2009 *The Macassar Village Land Occupation in May 2009 *The Durban proletarian shopping protest in July 2009South Africa's Outraged Poor Threaten President
Megan Lindow, ''Time Magazine'', 24 July 2009 *The

Abahlali baseMjondolo Abahlali baseMjondolo (AbM, , in English: "the residents of the shacks") is a socialist shack dwellers' movement in South Africa which organises land occupations, builds communes

march on Jacob Zuma in March 2010. City Manager

Mike Sutcliffe Michael Sutcliffe is the former municipal managerA look back ...

tried to ban the shackdwellers from occupying the CBD *The protests in Ermelo,

, Zandspruit

Ficksburg Ficksburg is a town situated at the foot of the 1,750 meter high Imperani Mountain in Free State province, South Africa. The town was founded by General Johan Fick in 1867 who won the territory in the Basotho Wars. He laid out many erven and ...

, Makhaza in

, the Samora Machel squatter camp in

Mitchell's Plain Mitchells Plain is a large Township (South Africa), township located within the City of Cape Town, Western Cape, South Africa and situated about from the Cape Town city centre. It is one of South Africa's largest residential areas and contains ...

, Cape Town, Shaka's Kraal in KwaZulu-Natal,Fatal turn in taxi fare protest
By Lungi Langa and Nompumelelo Magwaza, IOL, 8 June 2011 Noordgesig,

Soweto Soweto () is a township of the City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality in Gauteng, South Africa, bordering the city's mining belt in the south. Its name is an English syllabic abbreviation for ''South Western Townships''. Formerly a s ...

and Themb'elihle, Johannesburg, all in 2011. *Protests in the Siyahlala shack settlement in Gugulethu, Cape Town,Western Cape hit hardest by service-delivery protests
Setumo Stone, ''Business Day'', 6 June 2012 the Zakheleni and Puntan's Hill shack settlements in Durban, as well as Marrianridge, also in Durban, Oliphantshoek in the Northern Cape and Port Elizabeth in 2012 *The 2012

*Protests on grape farms in the Western Cape in November 2012 and January 2013 *Protests in Sasolburg against municipal demarcation and the perceived corruption and manipulation of democratic processes in the local and regional ANC in January 2013 *Protests in Protea South,

, in August 2013 *

march on the Durban municipality, 15 September 2013 * Protests in Bekkersdal, Roodepoort and Bronkhorstspruit in early 2014 and Klipspruit, Soweto, and Langa, Cape Town, in mid-2014. *The

FeesMustFall #FeesMustFall was a student-led protest movement that began in mid-October 2015 in South Africa. The goals of the movement were to stop increases in student fees as well as to increase government funding of universities. Protests started at the ...

student protests in 2015 and 2016 which called for free education. * Protests in Zandspruit in March 2016 *Protests in

Westbury, Johannesburg Westbury is a suburb of Johannesburg, South Africa. It is located in the province of Gauteng. It is situated west of the Johannesburg CBD. History Prior to the discovery of gold on the Witwatersrand in 1886, the suburb lay on farmland called Ne ...

, in September–October 2018 following the death of a bystander caught in crossfire between gangs. * 2019 service delivery protests that occurred across the country in the month before the 2019 general election held in May of that year. * 2021 Jacob Zuma Protests, A series of protests regarding the arrest of ex-president Jacob Zuma * 2022 Fuel Protests, A national shutdown regarding the high price of fuel in South Africa

Notable post-apartheid protest campaigns

*The

Treatment Action Campaign The Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) is a South African HIV/AIDS activist organisation which was co-founded by the HIV-positive activist Zackie Achmat in 1998. TAC is rooted in the experiences, direct action tactics and anti-apartheid backgrou ...

's largely successful struggle for access to AIDS medication *Operation Khanyisa, protest against electricity disconnection led by the Soweto Electricity Crisis Committee. (The name was later used by ESKOM for a campaign against "electricity theft") *The

No Land! No House! No Vote! No Land! No House! No Vote! is the name of a campaign by a number of poor people's movements in South Africa that calls for the boycotting of the vote and a general rejection of party politics and vote banking. The name is meant to imply that i ...

campaign is a popular nationwide protest movement of the

Poor People's Alliance The Poor People's Alliance is a network of radical grassroots movements in South Africa. It was formed in 2008 after the Action Alliance, formed in December 2006, was expanded to include two more organisations. The following organisations are ...

boycotting electoral politics. *The Abahlali baseMjondolo campaign against the

Slums Act The KwaZulu-Natal Elimination and Prevention of Re-emergence of Slums Act, 2007 (the "KZN Slums Act") was a provincial law dealing with land tenure and evictions in the province of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa.Right2Know The Right2Know Campaign is a South African non-profit advocacy organisation established in 2010 to reduce state secrecy in the drafting of laws, increase access to information, and protect freedom of expression especially on the internet. As part ...

Campaign is an umbrella organisation tackling secrecy legislation, as well as denials of access to information, and access to process *The

led campaign against

labour brokering Labour brokering is a South African term for a form outsourcing practiced (and formerly practiced in Namibia, where it was known as labour hire) in which companies contract labour brokers to provide them with casual labour. Labour brokers are dif ...

and electronic road tolls in

*The 2012

*The Western Cape 2012 Farm Workers' Strike

Zuma Must Fall campaign

From 7 April until 10 April 2017, large crowds protested against President Jacob Zuma's recent cabinet shuffle and the subsequent ratings agencies downgrade to

junk status In finance, a high-yield bond (non-investment-grade bond, speculative-grade bond, or junk bond) is a bond that is rated below investment grade by credit rating agencies. These bonds have a higher risk of default or other adverse credit even ...

. The Zuma Must Fall campaign, whose organisers included members of the DA, EFF,

African People's Convention The African People's Convention is a South African political party formed by Themba Godi, former deputy leader of the Pan-Africanist Congress of Azania (PAC) via floor-crossing legislation, on 4 September 2007. Godi defected along with the PA ...

and

United Democratic Movement The United Democratic Movement (UDM) is a centre-left, social-democratic, South African political party, formed by a prominent former National Party leader, Roelf Meyer (who has since resigned from the UDM), a former African National Congress ...

planned further demonstrations in the days leading up to Zuma's birthday. 50,000 South Africans, many of whom were black, expressed their anger at corruption within the

ANC The African National Congress (ANC) is a social-democratic political party in South Africa. A liberation movement known for its opposition to apartheid, it has governed the country since 1994, when the first post-apartheid election install ...

government, unfair trade deals by the government that favoured the powerful

Gupta family The Gupta family is a wealthy Indian-born family with business interests in South Africa, whose most notable members are brothers Ajay, Atul, and Rajesh "Tony" Gupta—as well as Atul's nephews Varun, and US-based Ashish and Amol. The family ow ...

, and economic problems that had resulted in the downgrading of South Africa's credit rating. More demonstrations occurred from 12 April onwards, with

Julius Malema Julius Sello Malema (born 3 March 1981) is a South African politician and activist who is a Member of Parliament and the leader of the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), a left-wing party which he founded in 2013. He was formerly the President of ...

addressing the crowd in Pretoria before they marched on the Union buildings.

Reasons for protests

Research has consistently shown urban land and housing to be the most common reasons for protest. However, there are multiple reasons for protest including: *Unequal and segregated distribution of land in both rural and urban areas *The demand for housing *Poor service delivery (especially with regard to water and sanitation) *Government corruption (especially at the local level) *Undemocratic structure of wards and development forumsANC’s tinkering won’t make democracy work
Steven Friedman, ''Business Day'', 4 May 2011 *Top down selection for party positions within the ANC *Top down and authoritarian approaches to governance (or a lack of consultation) *Evictions and forced removals *Rampant crime *Unemployment *Police brutality *Municipal and Provincial border demarcation issues *Increases in transport prices *Electricity disconnections, increases in electricity pricesRatanda residents rekindle Heidelberg protests
Phillip de Wet, ''Mail & Guardian'', 20 March 2012 and the failure to provide electricity to shack settlements *Over crowding in schools *Failure to install traffic calming measures on roads adjacent to shack settlements *Low wages

Tactics

The toyi-toyi originally a

Zimbabwe Zimbabwe (), officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country located in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the south-west, Zambia to the north, and ...

an dance, has been used for decades in South Africa as a protest tool. Road blockades, land occupations, the mass appropriation of food and vote strikes are also common tactics. A choreography of dance performing a call and response song, protest performance, is a tactic that is often used to beckon bystanders to a march or demonstration

Popular protests and elections

In areas with high rates of popular protests residents tend to boycott elections, to support independent candidates or to support parties other than the ANC.

Misuse of the criminal justice system to intimidate grassroots activists

It has been argued that the criminal justice system has been misused to intimidate grassroots activists.

Violence

Violence from the state

A number of people have been killed by the police in these protests over the yearsTatane’s death opens old wounds for family
, Lucas Ledwaba, ''City Press'', 24 April 2011Independent Report into Political Violence Against Landless People's Movement
Jared Sacks, ''International Alliance of Inhabitants'', 2010 including Andries Tatane.SAPS, SABC under fire after Ficksburg killing
, ''The Times'', 14 April 2011 The number of deaths of protestors after apartheid is currently standing at fifty four. Four people were killed by the police during protests between 2000 and 2004, two in 2006, one in 2008, two in 2009, three in 2010 and eleven in 2011. There have also been constant allegations of non-fatal police brutality against protestors.Profile of a town on fire
Kwanele Sosibo, ''Mail & Guardian'', March 2011 It has been argued that people organizing independently of the ruling

African National Congress The African National Congress (ANC) is a social-democratic political party in South Africa. A liberation movement known for its opposition to apartheid, it has governed the country since 1994, when the first post-apartheid election install ...

are more likely to face state repression. The worst incidence of police violence in post-apartheid South Africa was the Marikana Massacre in August 2012 in which 34 striking miners were killed and 78 were injured. One pistol was recovered from the strikers after the massacre.

Violence from protesters

Violence on the part of protesters, including attacks on ward councilors and their homes, has been escalating. In two years nine houses belonging to ward councillors in

were burnt down.Our councillors are vulnerable – ANC
Dominic Mahlangu, ''The Times'', 25 June 2012

Other resources

Service Delivery Protest Map (with media resources)
Durham University

Notes and references

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Protest in South Africa Politics of South Africa Civil disobedience