No one has right to resort to arson: President Ramaphosa speaks on violent protests

President Cyril Ramaphosa has urged South Africans to refrain from being destructive during protests.

The president was addressing the South African Human Rights Commission’s National Conference on local governance earlier on Thursday, where effective service delivery and basic human rights were some of the issues discussed.

Referring to the violent illegal strike by some Amathole District Municipal staff recently, Ramaphosa stressed that there was no need for the violent nature of such protests.

“[As] much as people have grievances, there is just no one who has the right to resort to arson, to looting, to violence, and to damage property when they are expressing their dissatisfaction with whatever may be a problem to them,” he said.

In many respects, local government is one of the most important custodians of the socio-economic rights of the South African people.https://t.co/e60VrRmq4X

— Cyril Ramaphosa 🇿🇦 (@CyrilRamaphosa) September 1, 2022

Ramaphosa, however, pointed out that failures by local government were widening the trust deficit between the government and the country’s citizens.

“Unless these are remedied, we run the risk that people of South Africa will become disillusioned with democracy itself and we have already seen signs of it where they stay away from exercising their most important right, which is the right to vote. It is a vote of no confidence in democracy,” he added.

-EWN

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