Service Delivery Protest In South Africa: Policing,

Causes and Crowd Management

Binyam Yitay

bininabute@gmail.com

UPDATES On SERVICE DELIVERY PROTEST IN SOUTH AFRICA

Recent Findings on Service Delivery Protest in South Africa According to a recent research conducted by the University of Johannesburg (UJ) service delivery protest has been increasing since 2004. The protests spiked at 470 in 2012 – more than a protest a day. They dropped to 2872013.Since 2009, more of the protests turned villent.A total of 50 people reportedly killed by police between 2004-2014 (Beginning of February). However, these statistics do not tell the whole story, said researcher Trevor Ngwane.

The link between service delivery protest and political factionalismis minimal.High unemployment rate remains as the primary cause of community protest. Since unemployed people have very few choices about how toexpress their frustration. The media itself could has a negative impact on escalating service delivery protest. Media coverage of dramatic protests can also fuel further protests, by causing long-neglected communities to realise that violence can bring attention to their plight.

According to the recommendation render by Professor Peter Alexander,the research chair in social change at UJ “Repression is not the answer. It merely intensifies people's bitterness and alienation. The rising levels of protests are a warning that the problems of poor people need to be addressed. There is a ticking time bomb in South Africa,”

At governmental level, Zuma has given the credit of success in service delivery during his state of the nation address (2014). On the other hand, Gauteng province,one of the very spot for service delivery protest, Premier Nomvula Mokonyane has established a high-level task team to probe the violent service delivery protests. In the same track North West Premier Thandi Modise placed the embattled Madibeng municipality under administration following several service delivery protests in Mothotlung, Majakaneng and Hebron.

INTRODUCTION

This research work discern the criteria in which police responded to a service delivery protesters in

an ideal muncipality in South Africa.

The research is more qualitative and it explores the methods of the police used in crowd control and

management during municipal service delivery protest.

Subsequent to this, the author makes an attempt to reveal the causes of service delivery protest and

the resultatnt violence, looting and destroying of public and private infrastructure and properties.

Furthermore, since the study revloves around municipal service delivery protest, the overview of

municipalities function , importance, challenge and suggested way outs are pinpoints.

At last tentative recommendations have made to the improvemnts of service delivery and the

handling of the crowd that staged in the street to protest against local municipalities.

NB. This Research work is not static. It updated at least a monthly basis.

Key Words: Civil Riot, Crowd Management, Crowd Control, Municipal Protests, , Police

Brutality, Police strategy, Service Delivery Protest, South Africa

1. Civil Riots

Civil riot is a form of civil disorder characterised often by what is thought of as disorganised groups

lashing out in a sudden and intense rash of violence against authority, people and property. Civil

riots are thought to be typically chaotic and accompany with violent behaviour. Civil riots usually

generated by civil unrest that trace back due to socio-economic or political in stability of a country.

Sociologists believe that there is a growing evidence that suggest civil riots are not irrational, herd

like behaviour, but follow inverted social norms.

Civil riot is a crowd that takes violent, illegitimate actions reaching out of fear or anger. The crowd

takes a mob mentality. This implies that the people making up the “mob” do things they normally

would not do because the crowd makes them anonymous; this anonymity combined with the actions

of the rest of the crowd makes them feel like they can smash, burn or beat whatever and whomever

they want. Some civil rioters have become quite difficult t deal because they have the understanding

of tactics used by police in such situation.

Civil riot is not immediate result rather it builds up over time, the reasons can be years of racial

prejudice, unfair treatment of the poor or antagonism between company and a union. The spreading

of a civil riot is very quick; in many cases an actual incident isn't even required just a rumour can

spread through a group and turn deep seeded anger in to a violent outburst.

Concerning to the consequence, civil riots have devastating effect in the socio economic set up of a

country. France, for instance, compel to good damage of:

➢ 10,000 vehicles,

➢ the burning of 300 building that cost the country 200 million pound,

➢ 2, 800 arrestee and

➢ The injury of 126 police forces leave a black spot in the social arena.

As worst consequence, civil riots lead to the toppling of government as witness in the recent

Middle East and North Africa during the Arab Spring. Yet, some civil riots is easily controlled. In

this case, the rioters made a slogan chant, call for the respect of their deny rights and they will

disperse in themselves once they transmit their message to the concerned organ. The reason is that

certain minorities believe that they have no the muscle to got further or their concern may ignore or

unattentive in the eyes of the majority.

2. Crowd Management

crowd management refers to a police department's pre planned, practised , and rehearsed response

to a small or large disturbance within a specific jurisdiction. There is no, perhaps, great challenge

for the police than managing a crowd. The reason is that there are competing interests and rights

such as maintaining order, freedom of assembly and freedom of speech meet. While the police

calculating the crowd managemnt paths there are numerous challenges a head that includes:

➢ How to effectively manage police resources to deal large number of protestors who demand

their constitutional rights or other privileges such as the provision of basic municipal

services,

➢ How to work with the community who are not involved in the protest but who have

an expectation that the police will protect them and their property from unlawful or

destructive behavior.

Crowd management must take into account all the elements of an event especially the type,

characterstics, size and demeanor of the crowd, methods of communication with the the crowd and

crowd control. In addition, as a management, it must include:

➢ planning,

➢ organizing,

➢ staffing,

➢ directing and

➢ evaluating.

Particularly what is important tot crowd management is defining roles of parties involved in the

protest, the quality of the advance intelligence and the effectiveness of the planning process. It can

be argued that effective practice, when guided by the general principles of crowd facilitation and

systematic analysis, will increase positive interaction and reduce tension between crowd member

and police. This outcome requires an accurate understanding of how crowds behave, It also

demands recognition of the social dynamics and environmental feature that influence individual

motivation in large gatherings.

This involves the evaluation of crowd management theories. The most notable ones are:

A.De-individuation Theory

It states that member's of a crowd became “submerged' in the mass that is are not readliy

identifiable as individual, lose their feelings of uniqueness and awareness of their personal standard.

Moreover, the theory reveals that usual concern for societal nomrs nad self conceience are

minimized which causes the release of normally restrained behavior. This implies that lack of

identifiablity within a group , focusing on the group as a whole in stead of on its individual member

activities centred on outside events are such factors for the difficulty of managing a crowd.

Further, the presence of public figure individuals in the crowd will ease the pressure to think as a

group not as an indiviudal that entitles with self awareness causes de individuation.

However, the anti social behavior and escalation of the intergroup conflcit can be countred when

group members are made individually accountable for their actions and when the party that asks

them to account for their behavior sets an appropriate or anti violent norm.

B. The Madison Method

This theory evolves from a philosophy of public order policing dating in 1970s. This approach

begins with defining the mission and safeguarding the fundamental rights of people to gather and

speak out legally. The philosophy should reflect the agency's core values in viewing citizens as

customers. This focus is not situational; it can not be turned on and off depending on the social

crisis.

Further, this Madison method calls fro the multiple aspects that must be considered and addressed

in managing the crowd. These aspects include:

➢ Knowledge of the legal standards applicable to constitutional rights,

➢ Proper use of force, and

➢ effective gathering of information before the crowd intend to protest.

Hence, crowd management is a fundamental police function in all societies. This task is complex

and demanding. Police must address safety concerns in highly diverse environment and among

heterogeneous collections of crowd participants, while adapting to dynamic and sometimes volatile

situation with existing police resources and limited information. Police must also accomplish

seemingly conflicting goals when managing crowds.

A failure to properly manage crowds has produced disastrous consequences, but it has also created

the opportunity to reform and change. Effective crowd management requires much planning, early

and continuous analysis of risk, and cooperative interactions between police and the crowd. These

activities help police develop and implement interventions that reduce the potentially for violence.

Force, however, should not be used as a rountine strategy to gain compliance or resolve conflict.

Forceful police tactics may be counter productive and arouse aggressiveness in crowds. Researches

demonstrate that police can improve crowd relations and encourage peaceful events by reducing

forceful appearance and conduct.

Yet, police must occasionally intervene to maintain or regain control in the crowd. When police

must use force to achieve this objective, they should act in ways that assure force is kept to a

minimum, is directed precisely, and is perceived by crowd members as being necessary and

appropriate.

Principles of Crowd Management

The following key principles should be considered during the planning, briefing and deployment

stages of any policing operation involving the management of crowds:

A. Intelligence

Prior to any event, the police should identify groups who might be involved their intentions, tactics,

notions of acceptable behavior and views of other groups. Intelligence also may indicate the

proportion of activists within the crowd and homogeneous that crowd might be in its intention, or

the balance of those prone to violence and those who are peaceful.

B. Facilitation

This is a principle that give the crowd a discretion to policing themselves. Facilitation is supporiting

and encouraging demonstrators to reach legitimate goals with the aim to prevent conflict and to

achieve self policing. The police should seek to facilitate any lawful and legitimate behavior of the

crowd who are presnt especially when conflict starts. The aim should be to identify those lawful

will illegal protestors.

C.Communication

the police should communicate with the crowd how they seek to facilitate their legitimate aim and

the police also told crowd how the illegitimate action of some in crowd may serve to impede their

aims.

Communication should be made with persons who respected by the crowd.

Dialogue Policing is the other approach of communication where the ultimate goal is to facilitate

freedom of speech and the right to demonstarte. Its fulfillment will contribute to another important

objective to decrease confrontations between crowds and police, and between opposing groups of

demonstrators.

The expected result is less violence aginst the police, less force used by the police, less destruction

of property, and less villence between demonstrators. If effective, fewer members of crowds, as well

as police officers, will be injured by acts of aggression and police use of force.

D. Recognition

The police should aware that there are peaceful protestors and illegitimate ones among the crowd.

Generally,the police should identify these two groups of crowds. Further, police must be aware of

the various types of behaviors associated with the crowds that may result in a law enforcement

response. These crowd behaviors can vary from lawful assembly to individual criminal acts to civil

dis obedience to rioting. Law enforcement officials should indentify and isolateunlawful behavior,

if feasible.

E. Training

It is important to prepare for incidents through recurring training and simulation exercises. In

policing there are two kinds of personnels:

➢ Command Personnel: are staffs that do the day to day activities of the police by sitting in the

office. Command personnels are expected to understand resources, strategies, capacity, force option,

limitation of field forces, the law and policies.

➢ Operational personnel are the actual police force that confront with the crowd in the field.

This saffs are expected to understand the law, policy, tactics and mission objectives in order to able

to manage the crowd.

Police discipline and restraint is an essential component in successfully managing crowds. Training

has playing its role in shaping the the discipline of the police. Training should be render an ongoing

process that entitle the police force with new tactics and strategies for handling or managing the

crowd. Training may include:

➢ policies and procedures of the police department,

➢ The national constitutional,

➢ crowd dynamics,

➢ media relations,

➢ less lethal ammunitions,

➢ Arrest and control techniques,

➢ intervention strategies

➢ Mass arrest.

Crowds may be:

➢ Anarchists,

➢ labour disputes,

➢ service delivery protests,

➢ social agenda driven events such as abortion, environmental concerns,

➢ sporting events.

As a democratic nation, South Africans have the right of free speech and assembly as guaranteed by

the 1996 Constitution of the Republic. A fundamental role of the law enforcement agencies

including police is the protection of the rights of all people to have exercising peaceful assemble,

demonstrate, protest or rally.

On the other hand, law enforcement agencies also has the responsibility to ensure public safety and

to protect lives and property of all South Africans. The sometimes competing goals of maintaning

order while protecting the freedoms of speech and assembly stand as one of the law enforcement 's

greatest challenge.

Significance of the Research

This research work will assist law enforcement officers in addressing the many challenges and

broad range of issues surrounding a response to incidents of crowd management. The research work

will also help in improving established responsibility and accountablity of law enforcement officers

at all levels: national, provincial or municipal levels of governances.

In general, crowd management needs the collection of information prior to, during and after crowd

management events. Gathering and analysing information about the crowd can dramatically

increase the effectiveness of an agency's planning and response to incidents involving crowd

mangement.

Furthermore, crowd management also requires police personnels to hold responsiblities. The

officers, first, need to know their responsibility to achieve peace and order the area they deploy.

Second, they have to the responsibility to respect the rights and freedoms of the protesting crowd.

Besides, they have the responsibility to guide by the policies strategies , mission of their respective

department.

To sum up, in order to be a crowd management effective the following principles must be adhered:

➢ Knowledge of the constitutional rights,

➢ proper planning,

➢ using time, patience and communication to attempt to facilitate lawful protest activities,

➢ seeking support of the community,

➢ training,

➢ situational awareness,

➢ objectively reasonable use of force,

➢ liason with the media and a well managed media relationship.

3. Crowd Control

crowd management has various subtitle, one of them is crowd control. It is about the controlling of

a crowd, to prevent the out break of disorder and prevention of possible riots. Crowd controls calls

for lenient tactics unlike riot control. Crowd control can be define as:

“ an ability to reduce a unit's ability to fight in temporary base or it is the ability to control

protesters by either restricting their contribution to fuel violence or means to escape.”

In addition, crowd control can be defined as those techniques used to address unlawful public

assemblies including a display of formidable numbers of police officers, crowd containment,

dispersal tactics and arrest procedures.

A crowd is a group of people who are gathered in one area for a single purpose without any

planned, practiced or rehearsed agenda. Crowds can vary in size, composition, intentions, goals, and

behaviours. Crowds can be small, large or larger than expected. They can be composed of one

group with one goal or multiple groups whose goals can be similar or in opposition.

In terms of their behaviour, crowds can be completely peaceful or law-abiding or they can contain

disruptive and destructive elements.

Controlling of a crowd depend on the behaviour of both actors involved in the protest:

I. The crowd behaviour

II. The police behaviour as an individual and as a group will be a factor fro the intensity of the

crowd and the possibility of maintain stability. Beside, a police department should adhere the

following principles in dealing with the crowd at minimal cost:

A. Self control

individual police officers and the police as a group must not lose self control when dealing with the

crowd. If the crowd perceives the police as a professional who do their business in an impartial way

to maintain peace and order, the crowd likely to drain its violent behaviour.

In addition, the police ought to control their self innate that only force should be used to control a

specific group, since excessive force in a sensitive situation will destroy previous gains and

seriously affect future accomplishments.

B. Alertness

police officers, especially those in command positions, must be alert so that they can detect rapid

changes in the course of disturbances. Police personnel at large should be prepared for the sounds

and sights of riots and other civil unrests.

The reason for alertness is that riots erupted in unexpected way and time. Police departments,

therefore, should be alert for any possible riot happening. The personnels ought be ready in training

on how to handle, deal and control the crowd.

C. Team Sprite

Normally, police officers are trained to work individually and to deal with individual anti social

behaviour. They may think in terms of individual capacity rather than a group.

However, crowd control needs another pedigree. Unless, officers have to work as a team in both

their actions and emotions, controlling a crowd is uneasy task. While acting as a team to control the

crowd, police officers must be well organised and they must expected to act with precision in order

to be effective in deescalating the atmosphere.

D. Community Support

policing is about serving the community. Sometimes it is difficult to control the crowd without the

support of the community. This is true especially where a crowd is protesting under the leadership

of prominent individuals or key note speakers. In such case, the crowd has the tendency to listen its

leaders than the authority of the police.

Hence, it is important to acquire and maintain community support in crowd control. Yet, in order to

maintain community support, police must act competently and professionally. They must defend

and protect everyone in a same magnitude, not just a selected few.

E. Humour

This principle reveals that police officers should be friendly and initiate conversation with

individuals in the crowd, in order to reduce the violent actions of the crowd. Officers, even, can got

to the crowd greet them and they must tell that they are to protect them.

In addition, police officers should remember that a smile is contagious and will not completely

destroy their authority. So that, due to the positive benefits of humour in crowd control, police

department might identify for such duty those officers who demonstrate an ability to handle crowds

wit and humour.

To sum, crowd control is one of the elements of crowd management. Police personnels, command

and field officers need to maintain peace and stability via controlling the crowd in civilized fashion.

In order to a crowd control be effective, the emotion of a police officer, his relationship with the

team of officers and the community , the positive attitude towards the crowd should maintain.

Further, the police officer should be equipped with crowd control trainings, materials and tactics.

While police officers act in crowd control situations, they ought to adhere the constitutional laws

related with demonstration and the policy of the police department where they belong.

On the other hand, failure to incorporate best practices and model policies in preparing and

responding to the crowd control will result in:

➢ Unecessary injuries or even deaths of officers, protestors and others,

➢ violation of basic rights, such as the right to life, right to demonstration and free speeches,

➢ undermining police community relations,

➢ High burden of civil law suits and settlements paid by police department to the person

whose property is damaging due to unconstitutional policing policies or crowd control tactics.

Therefore, the police officers must idenitify tactical responses fro crowd control in order to escape

the negative impact of the crowd control mechanism. There are two very different tactics of crowd

control:

I. The soft squad tactic- that involves an officers equipped with proper response gear fro

dispersing a non violent group that could become violent. A soft squad is best used when the crowd

is gathering, mounting in numbers, blocking designated areas, being verbally resistant, and using

bodies or hands to resist and or combat officers. The purpose of this initial response is to gain

voluntary passive compliance from the crowd.

II. Hard squad that involves violence or active non compliance by protestors. The purpose of

the hard squad is to move the crowd and make arrests. Concerning to arrest, it is only advisable only

when all alternative tactics have either been tried unsucessfully or are unlikely to be effective under

specific circumstances. This is because there are continual compaints that law abiding protestors

and passerby were rounded up and detained along with violators in overly broad sweeps. The

negative impact of these media images damages the public perception of the police operation. In

addition, litigation costs against protestors proven to be expensive.

Subsequent to arrest is use of force. The use of force is bringing too many questions whether it is

justified or not from the media, the community and human right groups. Use of force must be

reasonable and proportionate to the threat, otherwise the criticism broadcasting in the media will

have an effect on the public perception twards police department.

Pre event briefing of officers should include a discussion of the rules of engagement; the use of

force policy; and the authority to direct the use of force, specialised tools and weapons. It is

recommended that pre event briefings to make use of force in a uniform standard.

Most importantly, police managers must ensure, through a system of checks and balances, that any

use of less-lethal options are necessary and proportionate and can be supported in after action

inquiry through sufficiently detailed records. When properly applied, less lethal weapons can be

effective tools in accomplishing the police mission. In the same truck, the police have to wear

protective equipment for safety reasons.

More to the point, the police must have a means to display to crowds its readiness to use force. This

kind of early warning is called signal value.

To conclude law enforcement agencies should be aware of the various types of behaviors associated

with demonstrations, and determine the law enforcement response appropriate fro each behavior.

The ability of law enforcement to maintain or restore order is highly dependent upon a thorough

understanding of the factors surrounding the purpose of the gathering, the type of crowd and its

potential.

4. Police Brutality

Police brutality refers to the wanton use of excessive force usually physical but potentially in the

form of verbal attacks and psychological intimidation by a police officer.

Police brutality is even the a serious problem in a democratic countries. Amnesty International, for

instance, has reviewed more than 90 individual cases of alleged ill treatment and excessive force by

New York City Police officers dating from 1980s to early 1996. ( AI, Police Brutality, 1999). Police

brutality is getting huge attention from the media and the international community when it is

inflicted against minority sections of the society, prisoners and teenagers.

On the other hand, it is obvious that police officers are legally permitted to use force in order to

dealing a disorder elements of the society. However, certain groups alleged the police that it may

gradually develop attitude or sense of authority over society, where the police believe that they are

above the law. The groups mentioned this argument as the cause of police brutality.

Besides, force used by police can be excessive despite being lawful, especially in the context of

political repression. In fact, police brutality is often associated with violence used by the police to

achieve politically desirable result.

There are characters that describe the brutality of police that include:

a. excessive use of physical or deadly force,

b. discriminatory patterns of arrest,

c. chronic verbal abuse of citizens including racist, sexist and homo-phobic slurs,

d. crowd control tactic that infringe on free expression rights and lead to unnecessary use of force.

Police brutality ,particularly when captured on video and shown on television and the internet can

divide communities. According to the Justice Department of United States 199 report, the use of

excessive force continues to spark community disturbance. In turn, this factor would break a much

needed bond between the police officers and the public.

Allegation of police brutality are often widely publicized by the news media, but according to a

2007 story by a newspaper called USA Today, federal records show that the vast number of police

brutality cases sent to investigators are not prosecuted. Generally, prosecutors decline to prosecute

when there is an lack of evidence to support the complaint.

Theories of Police Brutality

Research on police brutality has used to determine the seriousness of the offences. Based on this

there are theories developed on police brutality:

A. Situational Theory

this theory used to see the intensity and composition of crowd situation to determine whether a use

of force reasonable or not. According to this theory, police officers use force against suspects who

are minority, male, young and poor. In addition,. The use of force incidents more likely occur if the

suspect has drugs or alcohol and resists arrest.

B. Organisational Theory

It stated that the police brutality is determined by the structure of a police department.

Organisational theory is commonly associated with the relationship between police officers in a

department. Here, job satisfaction is the sub theme that shape the police officers attitude to use force

excessively or reasonably or necessarily.

The structure of a police department may have para militaristic, watchman, legalistic, service style

and citizen based policing structures. Thus, para militarists and watchman style police organisation

are tolerate use of force. Yet, legalistic and service style polices do not easily tolerate use of force.

Citizen based policing such as community policing or other innovative policing style is also

negatively related with the use of force.

C. Individual Factor Theory

This implies that the personal behaviour of a police officer is important to render response to the

crowd. Further, it stated that individual are composed of specific characteristic and demographic

features that typically include, among others, an officers race, gender, education, years of

experience and level of stress.

Ways To reduce Police Brutality

There are a number of ways used by police department to reduce police brutality. Better training of

police officers about the handling of a crowd and if there is greater community involvement , it

could be lead to fewer instances of police brutality. In addition, police departments can be assertive

and tough on crime without being abusive and should emphasize tactics that are useful in avoiding

violence during confrontations with the crowd.

According to a 19994 report from Mollen Commission, there are areas where police brutality

became the rule of the game. Based on this fact, there is a link between areas of high police

corruption and high police brutality. The report added that excessive force was most commonly

found in high crime areas, often with a high rate of drug use. Further, there is a link between race

and police brutality to account for the high number of cases in ethnically diverse areas.

However, it is difficult for criminologists to study police brutality since statistic about the problem

may not always be accurate. The reason is that many victims of police brutality go unreported for

due to anxiety of revenge from the police departments. Further, police officers often adhere to a

“code of silence” that refuse to testify against fellow officers.

Moreover, figures show a lack of punishment in the majority of police brutality cases. The New

York Times said that: of the 10,149 police misconduct cases reported in Chicago between 2002-

2004, only 19 led to an officer suspension of a week or more.

Consequences of Police Brutality

Police brutality is an unfortunate an intolerable aspect of police power. The consequences of police

brutality today can be devastating for all parties involved.

Police brutality is most commonly associated with physical abuse though It can take many forms.

Yet, it is also seen during interrogations with sleep deprivations, sensory deprivation and emotional

manipulation. The effects of emotional and mental brutality are not always physically visible but

they are long lasting and devastating. After emotional and mental abuse, the victim can be left

feeling shame, worthlessness, and dependency or isolation that will require years of therapy to

overcome.

On the other hand, physical brutality can also have detrimental and long lasting effects on a victim,

especially if internal organs or muscles are damaged. Even the police officer herself experience

negative consequence from the brutality. After an accusation of police brutality, the police officer

will face internal affairs investigating her life and personality. When the police accused for brutality,

she will often be assigned to desk duty and have her gun taken. This will have an effect on the rest

of the police officers career. The effect is true even when a police officer accused without any true

grounds. Certain officers forced to resign due to the allegation of brutality.

Concerning to the general public, when they learn of a case of police brutality they are likely to

become wary of the police department and government in general. The public often fanned by the

media will sensationalize the case. The result is obvious a police department will have a more

difficult time getting help from the public on investigations since public distrust will increase.

Police Brutality in Service Delivery Protest in South Africa

"Loss of life is not a small matter. We need to know what happened, why it happened. Any

wrongdoing must be dealt with and corrective action must be taken. Police must act within

the ambit of the law at all times. As we hold the police to account, we should be careful not to

end up delegitimising them and glorify anarchy in our society." President Jacob Zuma

police brutality had became more prevalent at service delivery protests in the past two years. But

cases were often hard to solve, this is because officers are reluctant to incriminate their colleagues,

according to the Independent Compliants Directortae (ICD). Accordingly, it is difficult to identify

the police officers who committed abuses at protests because they wore riot masks and fired rubber

bullets, which unlike live ammunition, cannot traced back to their weapons.

Death during the protest will be the result of a lack of training or even simple incompetence of the

police. For instance, this year (I.e 2014) three people were shot to death when the police

mistakenly used live ammunition instead of rubber bullets. The police officers involved are

now facing disciplinary action.

Regarding the number, South African police have also reportedly committed to almost

doubling the number of public order police officers from 4,700 to 9,000 in response to a

large number of protests. Regrding the strategy, Police have also responded in another,

unconventional way - by taking out advertisements in major newspapers offering advice on

how to protest. For example, they ask people to leave personal weapons at home when

attending a protest.

5. Municipal Protests

South Africa is an extremely unequal society. The post apartheid dispensation has seen the situation

of the majority of the working class worsening. In equality in South Africa is easily illustrated when

one observes the massive disparities in development, service delivery and wealth between

townships and rural areas on the one hand and suburban areas on the other.

Nationally, South Africa faces a massive backlog in a service delivery. Some 203 out of 284 South

African municipalities are unable to provide sanitation to 40% of their residents, just to mention one

example.

It is perfectly understandable, then, why working class and poor people take to the streets in protest

against poor and costly service delivery provided by the municipality; It is these residents of South

Africa that are impacted most by in sufficient and costly service delivery, corruption and municipal

management.

Municipalities in South Africa

Municipalities or local states are the level of state that operates at the level of wards. Wards are

geographical areas set up that divide provinces into smaller units. Municipal government then

administer a group of wards which are known as a region. Municipality leadership consists of :

➢ Mayoral Council- headed by a mayor,

➢ A municipal manager and

➢ Executives Councilors lead the various local government departments (such as Local

Economic Development, Social Development, Health and Education )

Under the layer of executive leadership are the ward councillors, who ought to represent the

interests of communities to the executive council and mayor.

The municipalities are the most appropriate level of governance to carry out the objectives of

service delivery and local economic development. The reasons are:

a. Municipalities are better positioned to know what people need, since they are closer to the

communities,

b. Municipalities are convenient ground for participatory decision making since, they are closer to

the community,

c. Municipalities are the right place for implementing the national government policies.

However, municipalities have accused for their failure to deliver the basic services such as water

and electricity in affordable price. Commentators said that this is because there are rampant

corruption, incompetent and politically appointed municipal officials. A ociologist from University

of Free State said that the lack of capacity to deliver on mandates, together with factors such as

individual political struggles, poor communication and ineffective client interfere are key

contributors to the surge in violent protests.

As a way out solution, the role of traditional leaders is usually cited. Capacity of traditional leaders

must be fully explored in assisting the municipalities in service delivery. Issues. Traditional leaders

feel left out in most service delivery projects in their area. There is a need to allocate roles for

traditional leaders in municipal processes as well as in rural development initiatives.

Municipal Protest and the Police

Municipal protests have creating a difficult task for South Africa police forces. In most cases,

protestors and the riot police clash due to the competing g interest both of them have.

When one look at the literatures, the news and analysis about municipal protests, it is not difficult to

read and observe the clashing point of view of the police and the protestors. The recent Sasolburg

Municipality in Zamedela township lessons the action of the protestors and the reaction taken by the

police results in the death of four protestors. Before the death happens, the residents:

➢ Set fire to two trucks,

➢ Throwing stones and

➢ barricaded the road,

➢ Injured two police officers.

On the other hand, the police used cannons and rubber bullets to disperse the crowd. But this is

unsuccessful and is not enough to disperse the crowd. Then the police arrest 150 protests and

charged them with public violence as police accused them looted shops in the townships.

Statement of the Problem

The study work focus on the service delivery protest and the criteria for police response. In doing

so, as I firmly believe it is better to know the grass root causes for service protest. This is the fact

that criminology is about the study, among other things, of the cause of crime. Then, the research

work will focus on the what extent the police will tolerate the crowd for service delivery protest and

the what criterias police used to disperse the crowd with light methods such as watering on the

crowd, tear gas and the like?. Further, the study will concentrate the timings and the criteria of the

police to use legitimate force to disperse the crowd. Normally, there is arrest if the crowd behaviour

is so violent, then, the research work will use how the police identify target protestors to arrest?

Post violence procedures such as prosecution of suspected protestors for killing police officer,

damaging or looting property also will discuss.

6. Service Delivery Protest

“In the absence of public electricity, a roof over your head and a running water, it it keenly felt” an

activist said.

Service delivery refers to the basic municipal service like electricity, water and so forth.

Multi Level Government Initiative a local NGO defined Protest as any complaint or issue cited by

prtotestors that relates to the delivery of municipal services over which citizens decide to actually

engage in organised public protest activity. Protest is a sign of frustration and sense of

disempowerment.

In most cases service delivery protests initiated by the poor sections of the society who live in

shoddy housing. In fact, poverty is the main problem for the protest that characterised by:

➢ dire housing conditions,

➢ unemployment,

➢ poor sewerage system,

➢ lack of electricity.

The above indicated social crises lead poor South Africans to staged more than 300 protests in the

past four years. Media 24 Investigations unit has got data from the SAPS that shows the existence

of service delivery at least once every two days across the country since January 2009. According

to Municipal IQ among the 3,258 service delivery protests that occur from January 2009 to

November 2012, protests against municipal service delivery system takes the record of 410.

The protests are either peaceful or violent. SAPS records show that Mmabatho township in the

North West province had the highest number of service delivery protests with 301 incidents of those

190 were peaceful and 11 were accompanied by unrest. In 2012, Western Cape become the

province with the biggest number of violent protests.

This research work solely focus on service delivery protests which are violent that followed police

interventions to scale down the unrest. According to Multi Level Government Initiative 2012 is the

year that anger boils over, since approximately 80% of uprisings have become more violent. The

protests are commonly accompanied with stoning of passing cars, burning of buildings, tyres, road

blocking, looting and burning of shops.

In such cases in order to break up the angered crowd , the police compel to fire rubber bullet and

other means of dispersing the crowd. It is obvious that after service delivery protest, the media, the

government, activists, civic societies made a reaction on which the efficient administration of

municipalities or local governments are highly criticised. Some persons, comment the need of

intervention on municipalities from the higher state organ to improve their structures for effective

provision of basic services.

In addition, service delivery protests are aggravated in cases where municipal workers went to

strike. This situation raises fears that dissatisfaction with municipal service delivery may further

increase and that this might see a spread in protest action.

Service delivery protest and the Police

police as a security force has the responsibility to stabilise unrest situation and to restore peace and

order. In south Africa service delivery protests which are violent lead the police to use force to

disperse the crowd, this is not unusual in daily news hours. Beside, police response will be arrests

for looting, public violence and various other crimes, this is because that criminals are exploiting

the situation for their personal gain.

In this case, residents of a municipalities needs to cooperate with the police to identify criminals

who take advantages. Even though protestors are angry and frustrated during this times,

cooperating with the police is absolutely critical to the society. It is unquestionable that people have

to give their time and their resources to common societal problems.

Causes of service delivery protest in Municipal level

The causes for public protest has different dimensions and multi fold reasons. It ranges from social

factors to state authority failure. Yet, dissatisfaction with the delivery of basic municipal services

are the major reason. These basic service such as electricity, sanitation are critical especially during

winter season. The use of electricity , for instance most severely felt in Winter to cook foods and

serving hot drinks to cope up with the cold temperature.

On the other hand, being a feeling of social dependent will be the reason for service delivery

protest. Unemployment that claims 23% of South Africans to sit at home, according to the data

revealed by Department of Labour, 2009. “ an idle brain is the work shop of devil” is the saying

that prove the devastating effect of unemployment. The already frustrated youth would fuel the

service delivery protest to indicate their grievance in the labour system of the country. Criminal

intent is also grown up in the minds of unemployed residences to use service delivery protest as a

means to get economic gain e.g by looting shops. As the protest sustains for consecutive days, it

gives the criminals more discretion , time and idea to continue their anti social behaviour. These

criminals may systematically turn the protest into violence. When public protest turn into violent

criminal activities, the police had to react to stop both innocent rioters and the looters.

More to the point, the breaking of political promises during election campaign to fight poverty,

improve infrastructures and build house remain one of the causes for service delivery protests at

municipal level. In fact, the state has paid its wage as it experienced service delivery protest,

immediately after the 2004 and 2008 elections. In addition, the election month April or May tribute

to service delivery protest , because April/May periods means immediately before winter,as

indicated above,its harsh realities exacerbate the absence of life's immediate necessities.

Other hidden reasons for service delivery protest is the perception of the public about rampant

corruption and nepotism within local government structures. Certain protestors blame poor service

delivery on the existence of the ruling party loyal members to positions for which they are

incompetent. This argument was supported by Minister Sicelo Shiecka:

“ Many of our municipalities are in a sate of paralysis and dysfunction and riddled with

corruption and maladministration...there might be a need to declare a 'national state of

emergence on municipalities.”

The other cause of service delivery protests would rely on sociological theory. The theory is called “

frustration-aggression” that purports public violence is the expression of frustration with the socio

political situation in a given country. The more intense and prolonged the frustration, the greater the

probability of aggression by the public.

Service delivery protest against South African municipalities is due to socio political instability if

the situation continued over long period of time, there is a probability to develop public revolt.

Hence, proper solutions for the socio economic conditions that exists in many municipalities will be

the solutions to save the from the consequences of fully fledged revolt.

The absence of public involvement in decision making can cite as another cause for the service

delivery protest. In a democratic system every state structures expected to be transparent and

accountable to the public. Municipal authorities ought to meet the public to hear their grievances

and concerns in the service delivery system. This relation has got an importance to maintain trust

between the municipality and the public. This relationship will scale down the public protest and the

police will not deploy to solve the problem.

Conclusions and Recommendations

The future is clear that protesting will continue and falsh mobs will increase. Advances in

technology (such as cell phone , the social media) have provided protest and rally participant with

invaluable tools to spread information to a great number of individuals in a short period of time,

resulting in larger, more informed crowds. Waiting to develop a plan of action fro a proper response

until after a police department receives the call that a crwod has gathered will leave officers and the

department exposed to unnecessary danger and challnges.

Service delivery protest has its roots abject poverty and inequality. The data available for public

access concerning to the service delivery protest is in complete to tell us the cause, consequence, the

response from the police to the protests.

Hence, it is better to study the cause of the service delivery protest in depth. The government must

be backed up community organisations and civic socities in its endeavour for addressing basic

municpal services to the residents. In addition, the South African police must demonstrate a keen

relationship with the public, in order to prevent violent and criminal activities that uses the service

delivery protest as their shield. The police, also, expected to adopt best practices from other

countries that are successful in controlling riots and protest with different tactics. The police should

understand its overreaching role in dealing with crowds to protect their rights. And sincere attempt

to work with crowds will reduce police burden by eliminating a preventable source of crowd

anxiety and tension or fear of unwarranted police use of force. Otherwise, as statistics shows that if

service delivery protest continue like this, there is a huge threat for outburst of fully fledged

revolution across the country.

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