In South Africa it has become a norm and almost ‘acceptable’ for protests to turn violent.
It can be a service delivery protest or a wage protest, but they are never without some kind of violence.
The reason I penned this column is because of the strike that turned Malamulele into a no-go area in Limpopo Province.
The residents in the area have been on a stay-away for over five weeks, demanding their own municipality instead of belonging to the Thulamela Local Municipality.
Residents have accused the current municipality of not servicing them.
Since the protests started, schools have been torched and businesses in the area have been negatively affected. Pupils are also unable to attend school.
As much as I understand some of the grievances by the residents, to me destroying infrastructure to prove how disgruntled you are makes no sense.
If you are protesting because of lack of service delivery in your area, how then do you justify burning down a clinic – the very same clinic you are going to need for your health. How do you explain torching the school where your children are supposed to go to in order to secure a better future for themselves?
You complain about trains being late, which by the way most of the time they are late because some thieves decided to steal the cables during the night. During your rage, you decide you are going to torch the next train that arrives, not thinking how you are going to get to work the next day.
Resorting to violence to make a point has never been a solution and I doubt I will ever see the logic behind burning schools and other government structures to voice your frustrations.
The people of Malamulele are angry right now and they are doing anything to get the attention of the authorities.
But after the dust has settled, and whether they get their own municipality or not, I can’t help but wonder how long it is going to take for the government to rebuild the schools that have been destroyed. What are those children going to do when all this is over? There will be no schools for them.
When all the schools and clinics are destroyed, what are they going to burn next?
Having politicians going to the media and expressing their outrage is not enough; something drastic needs to be done about these violent protests because we are not going anywhere as a country if people continue to think they can solve their issues by violence.
No matter how legitimate the grievance, if you are not going through the right channels to get your grievances sorted, you are no different to a common thug on the street.
When those children go back to school and have to learn under the trees, the parents who destroyed those schools will turn and blame the government for a lack of schools in the area.
The blame does, in actual fact, lie with them and not government.
