National Director of Public Prosecutions Shamila Batohi was addressing the Frederick van Zyl Slabbert honorary lecture hosted by Stellenbosch University on Monday night.
Electricity is a “foremost pressing issue” for communities across South Africa, President Cyril Ramaphosa says, as the country heads into local elections. Africa Check looks at what the statistics reveal about grid electricity supply in our nine provinces, and how it has changed since 1994.
In his weekly newsletter, President Ranaphosa writes that when people are deprived of the basic services without proper explanation of why this has happened or how it is being fixed, it erodes public confidence in local government.
Gauteng and the Free State have been the centres of protests with areas, including the Mangaung metro and the greater Harrismith area, seeing residents disrupting services.
The country has since the beginning of the year recorded 53 major service delivery protests, a trend which Municipal IQ said was common in the run- up to elections.
Deputy President David Mabuza answered questions at the virtual plenary sitting of the National Council of Provinces on 15 June 2021. Here he addressed the basic service delivery protest in Maluti-a-Phofung municipality in Harrismith.
Finance Minister Tito Mboweni’s budget vote speech noted that ‘communities are mobilising against municipal ineptness and are turning to the courts for recourse’.
Eyewitness News interacted with the community of Meqheleng, Ficksburg, late Andries Tatane’s home. Tatane was shot and killed 10 years ago while protesting for service delivery in his neighbourhood. The area still remains in squalor and none of the services that Tatane died fighting for have been realised. #ServiceDelivery #AndriesTatane #Ficksburg
There were demonstrations along major routes in and around various areas including Kraaifontein, Khayelitsha, Delft, Belhar and Kuilsriver.
City Power officials had to call off a planned raid in Alexandra on Thursday morning after residents protested and blocked roads, preventing them from entering the area. #AlexanderProtest #Protests #CityPower
Residents had been demonstrating since last Friday to raise concerns over a lack of housing and service delivery.
The association's president, Thembi Nkadimeng, said the country was experiencing an increase in violence targeted at councillors and municipal officials.
Gauteng remains the most prominent site of service delivery protests, followed by unusually prominent protest activity in KwaZulu-Natal and the Western Cape.
Celeste Dontley claims police unnecessarily used excessive force against demonstrators on Monday.
Resident Themba Mosime claimed at least seven people were injured during clashes with police and private security officials on Monday.
Poor services and a lack of housing prompted the protest on Monday.
Provincial traffic chief Kenny Africa said shops and businesses in the town were closed as a result.
People get angry far more often than they rebel. And rebellions rarely become revolutions. An expert on the French Revolution explains why today's protest movements are different.
