South Africa’s Protest Responses: Responding to large-scale social unrest.

• In Event: Citizen Participation & Protest in South Africa

Abstract

Coordinated and scaled social unrest as a protest repertoire, traditionally used during the 1980s, has seen renewed use within South Africa over the last ten years. Conventional protests in South Africa have sought to stimulate positive change within a society with limited and isolated chances of systemic harm and function as a form of recognised political participation. On the other hand, coordinated large-scale unrest requires an alternative risk assessment due to the unpredictable and extensive disruption such activities elicit. The article assesses the emergence of social unrest as a protest tactic through Jovanovic et al.’s (2011) conceptual framework, “Ladder of social unrest”, and the responses to these protests through the paradigm of “Reaction and Repression”, which is underpinned by three theories, namely: deprivation, deterrence, and backlash (Tilly, 1984; Lichbach, 1987; Carey, 2006). The article intends to extend the work undertaken to understand protest repertoires and responses to protests in Brooks, Chikane and Mottiar’s (2023) co-edited book on protests in South Africa and provide comparative insights regarding both the rise of large-scale coordinated social unrest and domestic (state and community) responses to this. The study will use a comparative case study of the 2015/2016 Fees Must Fall protests, the 2021 July Unrest, and the 2023 Taxi Strike in Cape Town to assess whether these activities could be considered instrumental uses of large-scale unrest as a protest repertoire. Compare the responses to these protests by domestic actors and assess how these differ from responses used during the Apartheid state during the 1980’s.

Author

• Rekgotsofetse Chikane, University of Witwatersrand