2019 service delivery protests

The 2019 service delivery protests refers to a series of protests and civil disturbances taking place across urban areas of South Africa related to poor service delivery that started in Alexandra on 3 April 2019.^[4][5]

After starting in Alexandra on 3 April the protestors marched to the wealthy nearby neighbourhood of Sandton five days later to gain more attention.^[6] On 9 April the trade union SAFTU stated their support for the protests and called on other areas in Gauteng province to join.^[7] By 11 April 2019 the protests had spread to other major cities in the rest of the country.^[8] Other than Alexandra protests occurred in Hammanskraal, Roodepoort, Vereeniging, Kroonstad, Blackheath,^[9] Tshwane,^[10] Bekkersdal, Orange Grove,^[11] Nomzamo^[12] Lingelethu East,^[13] Bergville,^[14] Bekkersdal,^[15] Caledon,^[16] Eersteriver, Rus-ter-Vaal,^[2] Khayelitsha,^[17] Riverlea,^[18] and Soweto.^[19]

The major political parties traded accusations over the cause of the riots.^[6] The African National Congress (ANC) accused the Democratic Alliance (DA) of not effectively delivering services to the protesting communities^[20] and the DA made a counter accusation that it was ANC governance in Johannesburg two years before was the root cause of poor service delivery in Alexandra.^[21] The protests were openly supported by the trade union SAFTU who called on other areas to join the protests.^[22] The DA^[23] and Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) accused the ANC of instigating and spreading the protests to discredit them in the run up to the 2019 South African general election.^[24][25]

Notable South African academic Steven Friedman, criticised media coverage of the protests for "denigrat[ing] poor people by offering a distorted picture of their lives" and supporting politically motivated narratives that the protests were incited by political parties instead of being driven by genuine grievances.^[26]