Economic stability needed for political stability
While South Africans are still trying to come to terms with the damage caused to shops, trucks, and other properties in the recent uprisings, there could be more upheaval ahead if government does not tackle the country’s pressing issues, says security expert Lizette Lancaster.
A researcher at the Institute for Security Studies, Lizette Lancaster, says South Africans can expect more violent unrest if government does not attend to burning issues.
In an interview with journalist Izak du Plessis, Lancaster said government’s responsiveness towards the needs of people will be crucial in curbing future violence.
WATCH: Lancaster says pressing issues must be addressed to achieve stability.
“Many of the areas where large-scale violence occurred, are known as hotspots for social and economic instability,” says Lancaster.
“The instigators of the recent violence tapped into the existing instability to reach their goal,” she adds.
Government is currently considering steps that can be taken to alleviate poverty distress, including the introduction of a basic income grant. An announcement on this is expected soon.
According to Lancaster, issues like xenophobia, the lack of social cohesion and service delivery, leadership struggles and other issues have been steadily eroding the stability of many communities.
Lancaster says this will lead to more violence.
“But whether it will be at the scale of the recent orchestrated violence, depends on how government responds to the needs of poor communities, and how it addresses its own failures,” she says.
“There were active actions of sabotage by relatively small groups that seemed to have been mobile in KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng, creating an environment for the looting and destruction that followed,” she says.
According to Lancaster, people are poor and hungry. She says poverty is a form of violence that should be addressed by government to ensure stability.
Read original story on rekord.co.za
