Why can’t we protest in a non-violent fashion?

I READ an interesting article about Dilma Rousseff ’s future as president of Brazil being cast into doubt as millions of protesters, wearied by the scandal in their country and the recession, staged large rallies in cities throughout the country (“Brazilians protest after new post gives Lula immunity”, March 18).

But the one thing that stood out for me was the fact that it said all the protests were peaceful with more than three million on the streets. Why can we, as South Africans, not learn from that?

Every time there is a protest march, or a service delivery protest or a #FeesMustFall march at our universities, we know we are going to read in the newspaper about destruction, burning of property, stealing, looting, etc.

Do they not realise any sympathy one had is soon lost when this destruction takes place?

When you are calling for fees to fall and then you burn campus property, who do you think is going to pay for this? And students are supposedly at the top of their game.

I see in the Cape Argus millions of rand were wasted on destruction that could have helped thousands of students with their fees (“#FeesMustFall = R145m”, March 16). It is so wasteful.

When you loot from stallholders as you rampage through the city on a protest march, you are robbing your own people of their livelihoods.

When you have a service-delivery protest, why burn the buses, or trains – especially if you are having a protest about trains coming late?

They are definitely not going to come if they are burnt. It shows lack of thought. It is time we all grow up and protest if we have to, but in a civilised adult manner so that people sit up and take notice.

It seems we can learn from Brazil.