There has been a 96% increase in protests in South Africa since 2010, research by the Institute of Race Relations (IRR) has revealed.<\/p>\n
The research also found that protests were more likely to occur in areas where wasteful government spending was rife.<\/p>\n
During 2013\/2014 there were 11 668 peaceful crowd-related incidents, 1 907 unrest-related incidents, and 1 691 incidents of public violence according to the police\u2019s annual report, the IRR said in a statement.<\/p>\n
These cases include major service delivery protests, industrial action, demarcation issues and conflict between political parties.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe trend for major service delivery protests shows that there is a greater rate of occurrence in areas with high levels of fruitless and wasteful government expenditure,\u201d said IRR research analyst Gabriela Mackay.<\/p>\n
\u201cMunicipal IQ data showed that of the 176 major service delivery protests in 2014, 21% of these occurred in Gauteng and 18% each in the Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese provinces, specifically the Eastern Cape and Gauteng, had high levels of fruitless and wasteful expenditure, with avoidable costs of R768m and R508m respectively, according to the Auditor General\u2019s 2012\/2013 Public Finance Management Act report.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mackay said many factors played a role in service delivery protests.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Western Cape has the lowest level of fruitless and wasteful expenditure at R1m, but 14% of major service delivery protests occurred in the province.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople protest because they aren\u2019t getting the services they need and this shows where these problems exist.\u201d<\/p>\n
Possible solutions, said Mackay, included a clear system of checks and balances when dealing with how public money is spent.<\/p>\n
She said the biggest problems were to be found at local government level, with municipalities often not properly spending public funds and being unable to collect money owed to them.<\/p>\n