DURBAN - With protests erupting in a number of areas across KwaZulu-Natal on voting day, veteran violence monitor Mary de Haas said she was struggling to understand whether they were deliberately orchestrated or a mere coincidence.
De Haas said that there was a “huge” amount of dissatisfaction with the eThekwini municipality and that had fuelled the recent wave of protests.
“However, with protests springing up on voting day in areas that were relatively quiet, it does beg the question whether there is a hidden hand organising all this,” she said.
De Haas said that people may have protested yesterday with the thought that their grievances would be heard by the right people as it was voting day and politicians were out all over the province: “Perhaps they did it because they also thought that with journalists out covering every angle of voting day, they would also get more coverage. But the province did have a strong police presence and quelled the protests early.”
Political analyst Thabani Khumalo said that the party that won the elections needed to immediately address local government issues and warned that a revolution would take place in 2021 if they were not dealt with soon.
Khumalo said that protests and violence had become the “fashion” among communities, and if not attended to soon, the new government would have to deal with far more violent protests during the local government elections.
“The next elections are the local government elections and that is where most of the issues arise. If this new government does not give attention to local government, they will have a revolution on their hands,” he said.
He advised the newly elected government to recall all mayors and then visit wards in municipalities to gauge whether they needed to also recall ward councillors who were shirking their duties.