Social protests can be devastating since they can cause economic setbacks and the loss of life. However, despite their detrimental effects, they are commonplace in Southern Africa. Southern Africa has recently seen a wave of protests within a short space of time. Protests are collective challenges posed to the political elite or authorities by people with mutual concerns and common goals seeking reforms in power distribution and resources. When such protests are sustained over time, they can be referred to as social movements.
In recent months, an outbreak of violence in South African cities, widely described as xenophobic, has prompted questions over whether the country is safe for immigrants, with at least a dozen killed in the unrest. Many see high unemployment as a driver of resentment against foreigners, who are viewed as taking away jobs from South Africans. Joblessness has reached up to 30 percent among males in townships across the country, and recurrent waves of rioting have often been tied to downturns in the economy.
This article delves into the underlying causes of rioting in Africa, focusing on the recent events in South Africa as a case study. It examines the complex interplay of poverty, inequality, political grievances, and social frustrations that fuel these outbreaks of unrest.
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The Role of Poverty and Inequality
South Africa is the most unequal country in the world, with the richest 20% of people controlling 70% of the country’s assets and resources, and the wealthiest 10% owning more than half the national income. The inequality gap has only widened as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic as more and more South Africans have fallen below the poverty line.
According to the 2020 The United Nations Human Development Report, one in five South Africans lives on less than R28 ($1.90) a day, and income inequality in the country is expected to worsen. More than 2 million people lost their jobs in 2020 as a result of the pandemic and the rate of inequality is only expected to intensify. The United Nations’ Global Goals work to ensure that all people everywhere are protected from the impacts of inequality.
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The protests, which began on July 10, 2021, have escalated to mass looting of shops, and malls, the destruction of property, and the loss of lives in the crossfire, are being seen as a result of the increasing rates of poverty and inequality in the country. While originally politically motivated, the protests have since been fueled by poverty and the deep-rooted inequalities that the country has been grappling with for decades.
According to Mervyn Abrahams, Director of KwaZulu Natal-based Pietermaritzburg Economic Justice and Dignity Group, the looting of basic food and necessities is more than just a demonstration against former president Zuma’s arrest. He continued: “These protests are not even isolated to food but have provided a cover for people who feel excluded economically to just come and take over.”
Protesters on the ground interviewed by Newzroom Afrika journalists explained that they are looting due to a loss of income. Lying on the ground with handcuffs around her wrists, a recently arrested protester in Johannesburg told journalists that she had resorted to looting in an effort to get food for her child. Speaking in isiZulu she said: “I was trying to get food for my child… I left him with a neighbour. I just saw people heading in this direction and I followed.”
These accounts highlight the desperation and economic hardship driving many to participate in the looting and unrest.
Here's a table summarizing the key economic indicators contributing to unrest:
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| Indicator | Data | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Richest 20% control of country’s assets | 70% | Various reports on South African wealth distribution |
| People living on less than $1.90 a day | 1 in 5 South Africans | 2020 The United Nations Human Development Report |
| Job losses in 2020 due to the pandemic | Over 2 million | Various reports on South African employment statistics |
Political Factors and Governance
The recent protests in South Africa were initially sparked by the arrest and imprisonment of former president Jacob Zuma for evading a mandatory inquiry related to corruption. On June 29, 2021, South Africa’s Constitutional Court found former president Jacob Zuma guilty of contempt of court, and sentenced him to 15 months imprisonment. This came after Zuma failed to appear before the State Capture Inquiry where he was being questioned regarding corruption during his time as president. The day after Zuma was admitted to a correctional facility in KwaZulu Natal (KZN) Province, on the morning of July 8, the former president’s loyal followers began to protest within the province, calling for Zuma’s release.
Demonstrators set trucks and cars on fire and vandalised private property in the KZN area. These protests built up in the province and eventually spread to Gauteng Province within a matter of days. On Sunday 11, July cases of looting and violence were reported in both KwaZulu Natal and Gauteng, only escalating on Monday July 12, where shops were forced to close, trucks halted deliveries to KZN and looting spread to major cities within both KZN and Gauteng Province.
Former South African president Jacob Zuma was charged with corruption in March 2018, in connection with the South African Arms Deal, known as the "Strategic Defence Package" worth R30 billion (equal to US$2.5 billion or £2 billion). On 29 June 2021, Zuma was sentenced to 15 months in prison for contempt of court, after he refused to appear at a commission his government appointed to investigate alleged corruption during his time in office, and engaged in what the judges characterised as a "politically motivated smear campaign" against the country's judiciary.
In his speech on the evening of July 12, 2021, Ramaphosa acknowledged claims that the root causes of the ongoing riots and looting are poverty and unemployment in the country. “This moment has thrown into stark relief what we already knew: that the level of unemployment, poverty and inequality in our society is unsustainable,” he said. “We cannot expect a lasting and durable peace if we do not create jobs and build a more just and equitable society in which all South Africans can participate freely and equally.”
The perception of injustice stems from the realization that a government illegitimately perpetuates inequality by not making jobs accessible to all those who are qualified to have them. Nepotism and corruption are mostly the causes of such grievances in Africa. People’s feeling of entitlement to jobs, which they are precluded from accessing, results in a sense of injustice. Injustice connotes that some agent is responsible for the encountered or experienced hardship, loss and suffering.
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Theories Explaining Rebellious Behavior
Some theories that account for rebellious behaviour can hardly explain the widespread protests witnessed in Southern Africa in recent years. For instance, collective action theory would have mentioned the quest to provide public good but failed to explain the rationale behind looting and violence that resulted from the protests. Conversely, the rational choice theory would have dwelt on a free-rider problem and fallen back on its head because the protests in these Southern African countries seemed massive and very organized. In this context, the failure of rational choice theory would be the assumption that rational self-interested individuals are unlikely to contribute to securing a public good.
This paper’s argument is hinged on the frustration-aggression hypothesis or theory to analyze the causes of protests. The theory is essential for explaining violence. Since the 1930s, it has been applied chiefly in psychology, criminology, sociology and ethnology. The frustration component of the theory is typically associated with an event instead of emotion and is the one responsible for aggressive behaviour.
The frustration-aggression hypothesis was first formulated by Dollard et al. (1939, p. 1), who contended that “the occurrence of aggressive behaviour always presupposes the existence of frustration and, contrariwise, that the existence of frustration always leads to some form of aggression.” Thus, frustration does not denote an emotional state but an event. Pastore (1952, p. 279) maintained, “The occurrence of the aggressive response depends on the subject’s understanding of the situation.” Thus, the shift indicated that the environmental contingencies and internal processes, such as the issue on which frustration is tied, are essential for analyzing the frustration-aggression connections.
One crucial factor in understanding this link is the extent to which frustration is regarded as arbitrary. Aggression intensifies when blame is unjustly attributed to a thwarting. Alternatively, aggressive reactions are aggravated when the thwarting is illegitimate or unjustifiable. Self-caused thwarting produces insignificant anger.
The frustration-aggression theory can hardly explain why individuals who are not frustrated would join a social protest to engage in plundering as it were in Eswatini and South Africa. The bandwagon effect can be accounted for by the involvement of protesters not disgruntled by a thwarting of a social protest, also known as the domino or snowball effect. Some citizens’ decision to refrain from or join a collective action is determined by the number of protesters participating in a social protest. A bandwagon effect is a term assigned to situations where information about the majority’s stance influences people to adopt the same view.
Impact on People's Lives
Regions in the country have been brought to a standstill and movement limited as riots and looting continue. Businesses have had to close and vaccination programs against COVID-19 have halted in some areas in KZN and Gauteng, with some vaccination sites and medical centres having been looted and destroyed themselves. In fact, as the president delivered his address to the nation, looting was ongoing, with national broadcasters highlighting the image of one of the South African National Blood Service banks being ransacked alongside Ramaphosa speaking in real time, with looters making off with computers, laptops, valuable medical equipment used for blood collection.
Upwards of 45 people have died across the nation and more than 490 people have been arrested for their actions, with police action intensifying. On 12 July 2021, president Cyril Ramaphosa addressed the riots, saying that the acts of public violence have been "rarely seen" in democratic South Africa. He highlighted the Constitution of South Africa, which guarantees the rights of everyone to express themselves, but stated that the victims of the violence unfolding are the workers, truck drivers, business owners, and the parents of those who have died and have all done nothing wrong.
The container ports of Richards Bay and Durban have ceased operations. Containers in the port of Durban have been plundered. Clicks and Dis-Chem, the two largest pharmaceutical retailers in South Africa, reported supply disruptions due to looting. A survey carried out by the eThekwini Metropolitan Municipality and the Durban Chamber of Commerce and Industry in 2022 however estimated the losses in Durban alone to be R70 billion. A July 2021 preliminary report meanwhile estimated losses suffered by the province of Gauteng at R3.5 billion, according to the province's then-Premier David Makhura. He also added that 14,500 jobs were estimated to have been lost and 30 shopping malls were looted.
Xenophobia and Racial Tensions
An outbreak of violence in South African cities in recent months that has been widely described as xenophobic has prompted questions over whether the country is safe for immigrants, with at least a dozen killed in the unrest. There is anecdotal evidence that mobs have targeted shops and small businesses owned by Nigerians, Somalis, and Zimbabweans. Though the media has described these attacks as xenophobic, most of those killed have been South African.
In the Indian-majority township of Phoenix, KwaZulu-Natal, some of the residents had armed themselves to fight off looters, due to the absence of police forces. This in turn stoked racial tensions between black and Indian South African citizens, with several racially motivated attacks reported to have taken place. Racial tensions in the area, it was discovered, were stoked by false rumours of a massacre of between 350 and 500 black people, allegedly by Indians in Phoenix.
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