Most analysts consider the electoral system to be the fundamental flaw in SA’s democratic architecture, writes Thabang Motsohi THE report by Municipal IQ on the trends in service delivery protests in SA is very disturbing. A worrying component of these protests is the increasing level of violence, and even more worrying is the fact that the violence is perpetrated mostly by the youth, who should be in institutions of learning equipping themselves with the skills they need to enable them to achieve a high level of self-expression and development.Various research initiatives have concluded that service delivery protests tend to increase during local election years, indicating that they could be driven by competition for inclusion in the parties’ candidate lists. But a deeper examination indicates that the principal cause for frustration among the communities involved is a lack of democratic local participation. Communities claim elected representatives are never available to consult w...
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