Why turn violent when we protest?

As long as the focus changes when the public decide to deviate from lawful protests to illegal ones, we will forever blame the police engagement of enforcing the law.

Every time there are protests, for whatever genuine reason or not, attention tends to focus on the reaction of the police in handling and attending to such violent protest.

This week the N1 south in the Free State was blocked and barricaded. In the Eastern Cape, a Nyala police truck was torched. The police and innocent road users were pelted with stones.

But why is it that service delivery failures by some municipalities harm innocent road users and infrastructure which in turn does not produce the intended results?

There is a developing trend that police are attacked physically and at police stations during protests; they are disarmed and police vehicles are torched.

Let us respect our own police service. In no way will they decide to be counter-revolutionary to the need of the masses which they protect and serve.

Let us adhere to protocols of arranging marches and protesting and see if we are not burning tyres, blocking the roads and attacking them, what will they do or say when we peacefully march. Let us hold those in such positions accountable and name and shame them. Let them vacate the office and allow service delivery to kick in.

Let those who must deliver service do what is expected of them; that will minimise these violent protests in our country.

Andries Monyane, Sedibeng