The Spatial Spread of Violent Service Delivery Protests in South Africa: A Question of Demonstration Effect versus Genuine Calls

This article conceptually unpacks service delivery in the context of both the democratic effect and genuine call regarding the spread of violent service delivery protests in South Africa. Thus, the narrative or traditional literature review approach is considered to conceptualise the argument, gist, crux, purpose, and aim of this article. The paper argues that violent service delivery alleged protests occur and are manifested in the name of demonstration. This paper aims to interrogate the spread of violent service delivery protests in South Africa; this is based on the question of what instigates the spread of violent protests in South Africa in the name of service delivery. Notably, is a question of are all the service delivery protests a demonstration effect of democratic expression or an exercise of a genuine call? The article solely relies on a literature-based review/approach as its methodology in considering various scholars who wrote about service delivery protests in a South African context.