Dissertation submitted in fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Masters: Public Management, Durban University of Technology, Durban, South Africa, 2016. / Protests are an integral part of many social, political and economic activities in societies all over the world, and the concept of protest is an on-going subject of scholarly endeavour. The occurrence of protests in South Africa, however, highlights significant deficit in meeting the huge expectations from a formerly disadvantaged majority of the population. Furthermore, the current preponderance of protest incidents in the Eastern Cape Province, and particularly in the Mbizana Local Municipality proffered the motive for this research. The incidence of protests in the study area, in most cases, has been attributed to poor service delivery and the high expectations for improved social and economic development. While issues related to the delivery of basic services are attended to, the continued occurrence and increasing intensity of these protest incidents, has led to the argument that other factors are also at play. Using a mixed methods approach, the study employed a questionnaire survey to elicit information linked to the incidence of protests. Two hundred and eighty respondents from three selected wards in the local municipality were randomly sampled, and three municipal officials were also interviewed to explore the factors influencing protest incidents in the study area. Findings from the study point to the profusion of unresolved community complaints coupled with slow- paced provision of services, intra-party disagreements among political factions in the municipal council, and crime-related incidents; as factors responsible for protests in the local municipality. The study shows the preponderance of disagreements among political party members as a leading cause for protest incidents, unrelated to the provision of basic services. Also, the demand for justice among victims of criminal incidents was found to be another reason for the increasing number of protest events in the Mbizana Local Municipality. / M

This thesis has been submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy to the Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment of the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2016 / This study assesses agonism's practical possibilities for constructive, rather than destructive, outcomes arising from state-society strife, by drawing on the case of the Johannesburg city administration. / GR2017

Thesis (M. Dev. (Development & Management)) -- University of Limpopo, 2015 / The manifestation of violence during the constitutionally protected protest action is highly questionable and unexpected feature of, the democratic dispensation in South Africa. Moreover, the right to protest is provided with strong restrictions to violence. Literature has publicised the reasons advanced for these fierce violent public protests dominating the democratic state and they are amid the lack of service delivery, maladministration and political squabbles. However, the geographic area of the protests questions the legitimacy of the so called service delivery protests. Notwithstanding, the recent statistics that show an upward increase in the accessibility of basic services by South Africans. Thus, this study dismisses the idea that the fierce public protests are as a result of a lack of service delivery, maladministration or political squabbles. Considering the location of the protests which is mostly in informal settlements close to metropolitan cities where some services have been provided. Whereas, the rural communities that receive very minimal, and to some extent no services have recorded very few protests linked to service delivery. Therefore, this study locates the violent public protests in the demonstration effect due to the geographical area and the advanced influence of media. The study used scholarship analysis to scrutinise the textual data gathered on the rationale underlying the violent public protests in South Africa’s globally-acclaimed democratic dispensation.

My aim in this dissertation is to explore the manner in which protest leaders in the post-apartheid context understand themselves and their actions against the backdrop of the socio-historical, political and economic conditions within which protests take place. The aim is to contribute to the debate around the nature of the challenge posed by protest action to the post-apartheid neoliberal order. The study uses an actor-oriented ethnographic methodology to examine at close range the nature of the protest movement in working class South African townships focusing on the so-called service delivery protests. In the quest to understand the action, forms of organisation and ideologies characteristic of the protests, and their significance for post-apartheid society, I use concepts and insights from the literature on social movements, discourse theory and, in particular, Gramsci's ideas on hegemony. The latter helps me to define and assess the threat posed by the protests to the dominant order which I characterise as neoliberalism or neoliberal capitalism. The conclusion that I come to is that the protests are best understood in the context of the transition from apartheid to democracy: its dynamics and its unmet expectations. They represent a fragmented and inchoate challenge to the post apartheid neoliberal order. Their weakness, I argue, partly derives from the effects of the demobilisation of the working class movement during the transition to democracy. It will take broader societal developments, including the emergence of a particular kind of leadership and organisation, for the protests to pose a serious challenge to the present order. The experience of the struggle against apartheid suggests the necessity of a vision of alternatives to inspire, shape and cohere struggles around everyday issues and concerns into struggles for radical society-wide alternatives. Protest action was linked to imagination of a different way of doing things and organising society. Without this link, it is likely that the protest movement will be increasingly isolated and contained with some of its energy used negatively, for example, in populist chauvinism, xenophobic attacks, mob justice, and other forms of anti-social behavior that are becoming a worrisome feature of post-apartheid society. Nonetheless, it provides hope and the foundation for a different future. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2011.

Thesis (M.A. (Criminology)) -- University of Limpopo, 2016 / The study aimed to determine the relationship between service delivery protests and crime in the Sekhukhune District Municipality. To achieve the study a qualitative approach was adopted. Focus group discussions were held with 10 discussants in each of the municipalities within the Sekhukhune District Municipality (10 in Elias Motsoaledi Municipality, 10 in Ephraim Mogale Municipality, 10 in Greater Tubatse Municipality, 10 in Fetakgomo Municipality, and 10 in Makhuduthamaga Municipality).Thematic analysis were used to analysed data collected from 50 participants. The results revealed that lack of service delivery, corruption, poor housing and unemployment cause service delivery protests. Service delivery protests turn violent due to community frustrations and police presence escalates the violence. Sekhukhune District Municipality members participate in violent service delivery protests due hopelessness and lack of knowledge of participatory mechanisms. Road barricading, tyre burning and vandalism are the nature of criminality associated with service delivery protests. Public protests are caused by a myriad of factors; however the findings indicate that there is a gulf that exists between the public and the municipal authorities. The public voice seems not to be heard by authorities, which leads to the public engaging in public protests. Public protests come only as a last resort, after all public participation avenues have been exhausted including the failure of the authorities to respond timeously to public demands. The study was able to determine the relationship between service delivery protests and crime. Sekhukhune District Municipality need to explore ways for both the invited spaces and invented spaces of participation to co-exist. This will provide for early detection (warning signs) for the levels of frustrations and subsequent protests.