The Cabinet on Thursday condemned violent service-delivery protests and called on communities to behave responsibly.
Briefing the media following Cabinet’s regular meeting on Wednesday, government spokesperson Themba Maseko said ministers had discussed the violent protests in some parts of the country.
He said while the government acknowledged that citizens had a democratic right to express their grievances, this right was accompanied by the responsibility to ensure that the rights of others were not infringed upon.
‘Expressing discontent in a responsible, constructive manner’
“No one has the right to attack others, to destroy public and private property, or to embark on any criminal activity in the name of service-delivery protests.
“Communities must express their discontent in a responsible and constructive manner. The violent and destructive nature of some of the protests is unacceptable,” Maseko said.
The government accepted that the protests were a symptom of accumulated discontent about a range of issues pertaining to the delivery of basic services.
Many of these issues raised during these protests were already receiving attention at the highest level in government.
“We remain committed to addressing issues of service delivery through the implementation of the local government turnaround strategy, whose primary objective is to ensure that local government is strengthened to urgently attend to the service-delivery concerns of all communities,” Maseko said.
Closing the gap
The Cabinet also announced plans to hold 4 250 community meetings every year to listen to service-delivery concerns and try to close the gap between itself and a disaffected public.
“If you continue to see these protests, it is an indication that there is an element of discontent,” said Maseko.
“Our citizens may just be feeling that government is not listening to them. So this is an attempt to actually bring government closer to the people … to tell communities what government is going to do.”
No electioneering
Maseko denied that the so-called public participation programme would amount to campaigning ahead of next year’s local government
elections, but acknowledged that the government was mindful that service-delivery protests intensified ahead of municipal polls.
“There are trends that are discernible in all these protests. We are aware, for instance, that prior to the year leading to local government elections, for example, we have tended to see a lot of protests taking place in various parts of the country in the past.”
The meetings — at which ministers, deputy ministers, mayors, councillors and provincial ministers would meet the public — “will not be a platform for electioneering”.
“It will coincide with local government elections, but that is not the primary objective.”
Maseko said the government had realised that local government was proving to be the most important sphere of government in that it “interacts with communities on a day-to-day basis”.
He said there was also a realisation on the part of the government that it needed to channel more funds towards municipalities and an undertaking to get rid of officials who routinely failed to perform their duties.
He warned that it would be impossible to unlock the billions of rands in additional funding that Cooperative Governance Minister Sicelo Shiceka said would be needed to clear backlogs.
“More money needs to be found, but we cannot access money that does not exist.”
Maseko said the Cabinet had not discussed efforts by the intelligence community to discover whether the protests were being orchestrated.
“Our primary aim is to begin to identify the concerns that exists … Even if there was a sinister force behind [the protests], the reality of the matter is that there are genuine concerns and that actually is where the focus of government is going to be.”
He said Performance Monitoring and Evaluation Minister Collins Chabane would oversee the outreach programme to make sure follow-up meetings were held to see whether promises had been fulfilled.
Warning to taxi owners
The Cabinet also warned the taxi owners that violence would not tolerated.
“While government is committed to addressing the concerns of the industry, violence against law-abiding citizens as a means of highlighting their grievances is unacceptable and will not be tolerated, especially at a time when government is engaged in constructive discussions with industry leaders.
“While we are seeking lasting solutions with the industry, the right of citizens to have access to fast, reliable, and safe public transport will remain paramount,” Maseko said. – Sapa
Spreading service delivery unrest: Timeline since February 2009
