The days of violent protests are over

THE RIGHT to protest is enshrined in our constitution. However, we abuse that right by using violence to communicate our issues. I’m of the school of thought that we have run out of ideas on how to express our grievances against the government’s lack of service delivery.

The method we use to protest against poor service delivery is not working anymore, yet we choose to stick to it.

Every time we protest against poor service delivery, we use violence as a tool to get the attention of our political leaders. In the process, we destroy public property and infrastructure.

Violent protests generate media attention, which is good. However, the challenge with these protests is that they are destructive. Sometimes, if not most times, innocent citizens are caught in the crossfire, resulting in injuries and deaths. So, these protests take us backward.

More often than not, people who are in the forefront of these destructive marches are opportunists. They don’t care so much about the community issues. Hence community protests are so chaotic. Where are the genuine community leaders?

Violent protests are an apartheidera style. They worked then – but not anymore. We now live in a democracy and should apply a different strategy. Yes, we need to find a better and progressive way to express our grievances.

We need to be creative and innovative in our approach.

Otherwise, we will end up with no country.