South Africa has been dubbed "the protest capital of the world", with one of the highest rates of public protests in the world.

It is often argued that the rate of protests has been escalating since 2004, but Steven Friedman argues that the current wave of protests stretches back to the 1970s. The rate of protests "rose dramatically in the first eight months of 2012",'The year that anger boils over', Nirhsa Davids, The Sowetan, 11 October 2012 and it was reported that there 540 protests in the province of Gauteng between 1 April and 10 May 2013. In February 2014 it was reported that there had been "nearly 3,000 protest actions in the last 90 days – more than 30 a day– involving more than a million people".Our protest culture is far from dead, Max Du Preez, Pretoria News, 11 February 2014Our protest culture is far from dead, by Max Du Preez, Pretoria News, 11 February 2014

Since 2008, more than 2 million people have taken to the streets in protest every year.Behind the Marikana massacre, by Martin Plaut, The New Statesmen, 20 August 2012 Njabulo Ndebele argued, "Widespread 'service delivery protests' may soon take on an organisational character that will start off as discrete formations and then coalesce into a full-blown movement".Liberation betrayed by bloodshed , by Njabulo S. Ndebele, City Press, 26 August 2012 There has been considerable repression of popular protests.Media underplaying police, state brutality, Jane Duncan, Sunday Independent, 26 August 2012 The most common reasons for protests are grievances around urban land and housing.Service-delivery protests getting uglier – report, Nashira Davids, The Times, 11 October 2012SAHRC: People need access to land and housing, Koketso Moetsi, The Daily Maverick, 24 November 2015 It has been reported that "Nearly 75% of South Africans aged 20-29 did not vote in the 2011 [local government] elections" and that "South Africans in that age group were more likely to have taken part in violent street protests against the local ANC than to have voted for the ruling party".

In September 2013 the police reported that they had "made more than 14,000 arrests at protests in the past four years".

According to The Times "Informal settlements have been at the forefront of service delivery protests as residents demand houses and basic services".

Escalation of popular protests During the 2004–05 financial year, about 6,000 protests were officially recorded, an unknown number of protests went unrecorded, and about 1,000 protests were illegally banned. This meant that at least 15 protests were taking place each day in South Africa at this time.Sekwanele! – Social Movement Struggles for Land and Housing in Post-Apartheid South Africa, by Toussaint Losier, Left Turn Magazine, 2010 However the number of protests has escalated dramatically since then and Business Day reports that "2009 and 2010 together account for about two-thirds of all protests since 2004".Are fiery street protests replacing the vote?, Karen Heese and Kevin Allan, Business Day There was a dramatic surge in protests shortly after Jacob Zuma first took office and the number of protests was ten times higher in 2009 than in 2004 and even higher in 2010.Municipal Hotspots Monitor research as reported in the City Press newspaper, 20 February 2011 The number of protests reached an all-time high in 2010–2011 and then a further all time post-apartheid peak in July 2012South African Television's Accumulation by Dispossession, Jane Duncan, SACSIS, 7 August 2012 with more protests occurring in the Western Cape than in any other provinceWestern Cape is protest capital of SA, Oryx Media, 2012. . and just under half of all protests occurring in shack settlements. In early 2013 it was reported that popular protest had reached its highest rate since the end of apartheid in 1994.‘Steep increase’ in service protests, by SETUMO STONE, Business Day, 17 JANUARY 2013 In early 2013 it was argued that there have been as many as 3,000 protests in the last four years.http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/SA-has-a-protest-every-two-days-20130121, Athandiwe Saba and Jeanne van der Merwe, News 24

Between 1997 and 2013 most protests were related to labour issues or crime and were only very rarely disorderly. In 2013 the overall number of protests decreased but the rate of disorderly protests increase dramatically. Notable South African journalist Phillip de Wet estimated that nine out of eleven protests were peaceful.

In the first five months of 2018 a total of 144 service delivery protests were recorded with the Eastern Cape, followed by Gauteng and the Western Cape provinces having the most protests.

Rebellion of the Poor/Municipal Revolts/Ring of Fire

There has been a major wave of popular protests since 2004.Rebellion of the poor: South Africa’s service delivery protests – a preliminary analysis, Peter Alexander, Amandla Magazine, 2010Rebellions of the poor, by the poor, for the poor , Khadija Patel, The Daily Maverick, May 2011 Just under 40% of all protests take place in shack settlements. There has been a significant degree of repression of popular protests.Dissent Under Jacob Zuma, Jane Duncan, May 2011Dissent Under Thabo Mbeki, Jane Duncan, May 2011

These protests are usually referred to as "service delivery protests" in the media but although there is evidence of growing unhappiness with service delivery, most analysts argue that this description is overly narrow and misleading.People are demanding public service, not service delivery, Steven Friedman, Business Day, 2009The Service Delivery Myth, Richard Pithouse, The Daily Dispatch, 2011"We are Gauteng People" Challenging the politics of xenophobia in Khutsong, South Africa , Seminar Presentation, Joshua Kirshner, 23 February 2011, Rhodes University A number of poor people's movements have insisted that their protests should not be referred to as "service delivery protests".South African rebellion comes to Grahamstown, Unemployed People's Movement, 2011The Uprising , Dylan Valley interviewed by Sean Jacobs But others have termed the rapidly increasing wave of protests since 2004 as a "rebellion of the poor" or a series of "municipal revolts".Making sense of municipal revolts, by Mandisi Majavu, Foundation for Contemporary Research, 2011 Zwelinzima Vavi, COSATU Secretary General, has described the increasing rate of popular protests as a "ring of fire" closing in on major cities that could result in a Tunisia-style revolution.Jobless youth a ‘ticking time bomb’ for SA, Vavi warns, SAM MKOKELI, Business Day, 2011/06/07Unemployment in South Africa: Feel It, the Ticking Time Bomb Is Here, Ebrahim-Khalil Hassen, 23 June 2011

Some of the most notable protests during this period occurred in Harrismith, Kennedy Road, Durban, Diepsloot, Balfour, Thokoza, Khutsong, Macassar Village, Lansdowne Road and Mandela Park in Khayelitsha, KwaZakhele, downtown Durban, Masiphumelele, Ermelo,Ermelo Residents See No Reason to Vote, Diane Hawker, Independent Online, 2010 Grahamstown and Thembelihle (Lenasia).Five lessons from Themb'elihle, Phillip de Wet, The Daily Maverick

Protests continue and some analysts take the view that protests are becoming increasingly radical.The 'Gatvol' Factor , Jane Duncan, 2011 Some commentators have concluded that "a large majority of South Africans feel that conventional mechanisms of engaging the state are failing, and that alternatives may be more effective".

According to Professor Peter Alexander: "As many commentators and activists now accept, service delivery protests are part of a broader Rebellion of the Poor. This rebellion is massive. I have not yet found any other country where there is a similar level of ongoing urban unrest. South Africa can reasonably be described as the 'protest capital of the world'."A Massive Rebellion of the Poor, Peter Alexander, Mail & Guardian, April 2012

A number of community organisations and movements have emerged from this wave of protests,The elite and community protests in South Africa, Shawn Hattingh, LibCom, 2009The 'new' ANC and the Alliance, Shawn Hattingh, Z Mag, 2009 some of which organise outside party politics."Popular Anger and Protest in Cape Town is Under the Control of Ordinary People and No Political Party Likes That" , People of Color Organize!, 2010 However, in most cases this wave of protest has not led to sustained organisation.[* Whose Liberation? A Forgotten Left Critique of ANC Strategy and Its Contemporary Implications, by Steven Friedman, Journal of Asian & African Studies, February 2012 ]

Protest by trade unions The national trade union federation, COSATU, has also organised a number of large protests, most notably against labour broking and highway tolls.Cosatu finds a way through the tricky political minefield, Carol Paton, Business Day, 16 May 2012South Africans march in mass protest at toll roads, BBC News, 7 March 2012

Protest by workers organised outside trade unions The 2012 Marikana miner strike, organised outside the ruling tripartite alliance, resulted in 34 strikers being killed by the police with 78 being wounded on 16 August 2012.Marikana: What really happened? We may never know., by Mande de Waal, The Daily Maverick, 23 August 2012

Curtailment of the right to protest It has been argued that the state is actively seeking to curtail the right to protest.

Notable protests

The Harrismith protests in 2004Harrismith police killing follow-up, Freedom of Expression Institute, 2004A collection of newspaper articles on the Harrismith protest The Kennedy Road road blockade on 19 March 2005 The Khutsong protests during 2006 and 2007 The N2 Gateway occupations where over 1,000 families occupied unfinished state built houses to protest unfair and corrupt allocation of houses during 2007 and 2008Housing and Evictions at the N2 Gateway Project in Delft, by Kerry Chance, Abahlali baseMjondolo, 2008 The February 2008 Symphony Way road occupation which lasted over 1 year and 9 months The Balfour protest of 2009 The Macassar Village Land Occupation in May 2009Martin Legassick on the Macassar Village Land Occupation in Cape Town, Martin Legassick, 2009 The Durban proletarian shopping protest in July 2009South Africa's Outraged Poor Threaten President, Megan Lindow, Time Magazine, 24 July 2009 The Abahlali baseMjondolo march on Jacob Zuma in March 2010. City Manager Mike Sutcliffe tried to ban the shackdwellers from occupying the CBD The protests in Ermelo, Grahamstown,The Flames of Phaphamani, by Pedro Alexis Tabensky, LibComBullets fly as township erupts , Thabo Jijana, Grocott's Mail, 10 February 2011 ZandspruitPolice fire rubber bullets in Zandspruit , Jacob Moshokoa, Eye Witness News, April 2011 Ficksburg,South Africa rocked by footage of protester's death, Monsters & Critics, 14 April 2011 Makhaza in Khayelitsha,Hall torched in housing protest , Mandla Mnayakama, The New Age, 29 April 2011 the Samora Machel squatter camp in Mitchell's Plain, Cape Town, Shaka's Kraal in KwaZulu-Natal,Fatal turn in taxi fare protest, By Lungi Langa and Nompumelelo Magwaza, IOL, 8 June 2011Army dispatched to ‘hot spot’, 13 May 2011, Cape Argus, BRONWYNNE JOOSTE and ESTHER LEWIS Noordgesig, Soweto and Themb'elihle, Johannesburg, all in 2011. Protests in the Siyahlala shack settlement in Gugulethu, Cape Town,Western Cape hit hardest by service-delivery protests, Setumo Stone, Business Day, 6 June 2012 the ZakheleniService failure: next step, silence the dissent, Many de Waal, Daily Maverick, 25 June 2012 and Puntan's Hill shack settlements in Durban,KZN to build homes after fatal protest, by NONDUMISO MBUYAZI, Independent on Saturday, 2012 as well as Marrianridge, also in Durban, Oliphantshoek in the Northern CapeProtesters held in Northern Cape, SAPA, IOL Online and Port Elizabeth Premier Noxolo Kiviet slams protest violence, Zandile Mbabela and Luyolo Mkentane,The Herald, 6 July 2012 in 2012