South Africa: Cabinet to probe service delivery protests
A cabinet committee will investigate the violent countrywide service protests and MPs lack of basic services might lead to social instability. Government spokesman Themba Maseko yesterday said the committee was probing the causes of the protests and would determine what steps needed to be taken to resolve the issue. The announcement came amid reports that at least 11 protesters in Soweto had been arrested for burning down the home of a councillor this week.
The Mercury
Cabinet to probe service delivery protests
September 07, 2007 Edition 1
Wendy Jasson da Costa and Chiara Carter
A cabinet committee will investigate the violent countrywide service protests and MPs lack of basic services might lead to social instability.
Government spokesman Themba Maseko yesterday said the committee was probing the causes of the protests and would determine what steps needed to be taken to resolve the issue.
The announcement came amid reports that at least 11 protesters in Soweto had been arrested for burning down the home of a councillor this week.
Maseko said the cabinet had expressed its concern about the matter a while ago and the committee's work would be led by Provincial and Local Government Minister Sydney Mufamadi.
IFP MP Inka Mars said in the National Assembly that the debate about human settlement could not have come at a more appropriate time as public frustration with the government's lack of service delivery was "reaching boiling point in numerous communities".
She said this spelt a danger for democracy as social instability could lead to destabilisation.
Public frustration was understandable because the housing backlog was not being eradicated quickly enough and many still did not have basic services and the pace of provision was too slow, she said.
At the same time, the office of Public Protector Lawrence Mushwana is preparing for its own investigation into the matter which will focus on four municipalities in different parts of the country where people have made their dissatisfaction known at demonstrations.
Responding to questions by the DA and UDM in the National Assembly last week, President Thabo Mbeki downplayed the size of the protests, saying they did not involve entire communities and could not be seen as a "mass rebellion".
The DA's Sandra Botha said there had been 5 000 service protests in the past year, the highest in the world.
"To me, that sounds like a crisis," Botha told Mbeki.
Mbeki admitted there were challenges and said there was "some way to go"
for the government to provide basic services.