Electoral violence and municipal demarcation in South Africa, 1994-2019: A violent service delivery protests perspective

Abstract

In the post-colonial epoch, elections and violence have been a common trend within the broader African continent. This article explores electoral violence caused by municipal demarcation at local government level in South Africa. In most cases national elections are deemed to be ‘free and fair’ and yet violence and discontent has been a pinnacle of post-electoral outcomes in many African states. Since 1994, South Africa has been confronted by numerous socio-economic and political factors which have led to the outbreak of electoral violence at local government level. Generally, people are discontented about the slow pace of service delivery. Furthermore, corruption and maladministration at local government level perpetuates violent behaviour. It is important to note that there is a growing dissatisfaction and mistrust of councillors by community members whom they are supposed to be leading. The aim of this article is to examine the nexus between electoral violence and municipal demarcation in South Africa within the local government sphere. Moreover, this article employs the theoretical lense of scarce resource theory to explore the phenomenon under investigation; a qualitative approach is adopted in this regard. We argue that government should uphold the ethos of public participation in order to curb electoral violence instigated by municipal demarcation at local government level.

Keywords: Violence, elections, service delivery, local government