Implication of community protests on infrastructure development in local government : A case study of Greater Tzaneen Local Municipality, Limpopo Province

Abstract

The prevalence of community protest is one of the burning issues in South Africa. Communities protest for various reasons but most commonly they are for service delivery concerns with the hope of attracting the attention of government officials and politicians. The study is about the implication of community protest on infrastructure development in local government. Communities decide to protest violently as a way of making their grievances heard by the municipality. There is a chines Idiom that says “when you open the window for fresh air to come in, flies enters too”. In the process of protest, criminal activities take place; for instance, shops owned by foreign nationals are looted by protestors; school kids are deprived of their constitutional right to education and state infrastructure such as schools, clinics, hospitals and other government facilities are burned or damaged. Not all violent protests, however, are about poor service delivery by the municipalities but also shortfalls, holistically, from government.

The study applied a mixed method approach in order to get in-depth information from the respondents. Data was collected through observations, interviews and questionnaires. Sixty respondents answered the questionnaires and ten participants answered the interview questions. The interviews were conducted face-to- face, while the questionnaires were distributed to the municipal officials on door-to-door bases. Questionnaires were collected once the respondents had completed them.

MAJOR FINDINGS OF THE STUDY ARE:

 that most respondents at 37 (62%) Strongly Agreed that vandalism and burning state property is a criminal offence.  that 34 (57%) of participants Strongly Agreed that burning and vandalism of infrastructure slow down development.  that the majority of participants A,B,C,E,F,G,H,I and J are of the same view that community protests have a negative impact on infrastructure development because protestors tend to burn, loot and vandalise state properties.  that strategies that can be used to address the issue of looting or vandalising state infrastructure during protest, include, government not waiting for the

public to protest in order to provide services but that officials should regularly ascertain areas of service needs and attend to them. RECOMMENDATION FROM THE STUDY:

The study indicates that vandalism, looting and the burning of state property is a criminal offence. Those protestors who are caught in the act of burning and vandalizing state property, must be arrested and denied bail because destroying or damaging state property is a criminal offence and such acts cannot be tolerated; vandalism and burning of infrastructure slow down development. From the findings the researcher suggests that protestors must stop burning, looting and vandalizing infrastructure, rather they must go to the institution or department concerned and picket outside until they get the answers or services they are looking for; destroying infrastructure is not a solution, rather it hinders the very development that the communities are urgently seeking for. It should be emphasized to the communities that when a community becomes developed, employment opportunities increase, services are easily accessible, the economy grows and the wellbeing of the community gets uplifted.

The statistics revealed that lack of infrastructure has a negative impact on development and the economy of the country. Infrastructure contributes a great deal to development, job creation and Gross Domestic Products (GDP) of the country, therefore, it is crucial that it gets much funds from treasury. Infrastructure and service delivery projects must be monitored from the scratch by competent experts to avoid mismanagement of state resources and substandard work. Infrastructure enables service delivery to be effective and efficient, hence, has the ability to impact positively on community development. In addition, it is recommended that, municipal officials, politicians and government department must perform their tasks and stop making promises which cannot be met. The researcher urges the municipality to meet the needs of the communities and if there are some difficulties, they must be updated to prevent violent protests.