Empowerment or disempowerment: the political economy of violent service delivery protests in Cato Manor, Durban, South Africa.

Abstract

The post-1994 South African government has seen a rise in grassroots social movements in the form of social protests, mostly related to service delivery. Such protests are directed at the local government’s inability to deliver basic services such as housing, clean running water, and proper sanitation to its constituencies. The literature highlights that local people believe that protesting gives them an opportunity for their voices to be heard, influence decision-making processes, and contribute toward the progressive agenda of social change from below. Despite that protesting has a significant influence on policy review, the violent tactics that are usually deployed have been identified as counter-productive to community development. Therefore, my paper explores violent service delivery protests as a double-edged sword—empowerment or disempowerment—in the lives of the people in post-1994 Cato Manor. My paper was guided by the qualitative research method. I used Arnstein’s ladder of citizen participation as a lens and framework to interpret the findings. I used purposive and snowball sampling methods to recruit the 33 participants. For analysis purposes, I employed a thematic analysis facilitated by Nvivo. The findings reaffirm that protesting is one of the significant tools that empower alienated citizens to stimulate social change from below. Nonetheless, the violent tactics during service delivery protests that are accompanied by the destruction of infrastructure leaving communities in a state of despair, are a form of self-inflicted disempowerment.