An assessment of reasons behind service delivery protests: A case of Greater Tzaneen Municipality

• Date: 01 May 2020
• Author: John Mamokhere
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/pa.2049
• Published date: 01 May 2020

ACADEMIC PAPER

An assessment of reasons behind service delivery protests: A

case of Greater Tzaneen Municipality

John Mamokhere

Research Administration and Development,

University of Limpopo, South Africa

Correspondence

John Mamokhere, Research Administration

and Development, University of Limpopo,

South Africa.

Email: johnmamokhere@gmail.com

This article aimed at assessing the underlying factors behind municipal service deliv-

ery protests at Greater Tzaneen Local Municipality. South African municipalities also

form part of concerned public entities in terms of service delivery backlogs and pro-

tests behind service delivery. Over the past few years, South Africa has experienced a

large number of protests against poor and insufficient service delivery across most

municipalities in various provinces. An increase in service delivery protests in South

African municipalities, as regularly seen in various media platforms such as newspa-

pers, television, and social media, makes it necessary for policymakers, government

practitioners, and scholars to understand the underlying factors behind service deliv-

ery protests. This paper is also intended to assess if whether community members

protest due to poor or sufficient service delivery. It is quite evident that some people

take advantage of the protests to their best interests rather than protesting for better

service delivery. To accomplish the aim of this paper, a desktop research approach

was applied to validate the argument and to uncover the underlying factors of service

delivery protests. From the literature perspective, it is learnt that poverty, political

instability, corruption, nepotism, and lack of public participatory are underlying factors

behind service delivery protests. Despite some of the success of the post-apartheid

South African government, the country still faces serious challenges of high unem-

ployment, poverty, inequality, and political instability. These are some of the key fac-

tors that culminate in citizens on streets protesting or expressing their dissatisfaction

over the problem of poor service delivery.

1|INTRODUCTION

Service delivery remains one of the major challenges of the 21st cen-

tury. Service delivery protests are not uncommon around the world

especially in those countries where public service delivery remains a

challenge. At Yemen in Asia, during 2012, the country experienced

protests coupled with road blockages by citizens demanding lower

fuel prices and increased supply of electricity. There were also wide-

spread protests against government and security officials accused of

corruption (Akinboade, Mokwena, & Kinfack, 2014:10). In South

Africa, protesting is not a new phenomenon nor is it a phenomenon

that is unique. As early as the 1700s for instance, during the French

revolution, citizens protested against perceived injustices perpetrated

by the governing elite against the poor and working class (Brown,

2017). Cases indicate that there is almost no country or continent that

can claim that they have not experienced some form of unrest or vio-

lent protests by citizens. Therefore, citizens have been involved on

service delivery protests because they were no longer satisfied with

the status quo of service provision or about the undelivered promises

of the elected government. In this regard, South Africa has seen both,

violent and non-violent protests, prior and post first democratically

elected government (Brown, 2017:3).

Service provision is a constitutional obligation in term of section

152 of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996, which

lays obligations to the municipalities that the objects of local govern-

ment are (a) to provide democratic and accountable government for

Received: 13 September 2019 Revised: 10 October 2019 Accepted: 30 October 2019

DOI: 10.1002/pa.2049

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