Use your vote to punish those in power rather than taking to the streets- IRR
The Institute of Race Relations (IRR) has urged residents taking to the streets to complain over lack of service delivery to rather use their votes in the upcoming elections.
Protests have sparked across the country over the past week.
In Gauteng alone, Tshwane, Alexandra, Orange Grove and Vereeniging have all seen violent protests.
Terence Corrigan, project manager at IRR, says elections are a time when people try to draw attention to the issues that they face as communities.
"We often do use elections to punish governments where we are disappointed in their performance but to threaten to punish them.
"The idea is that soon or later we might take votes anyway and I think protest action is a very effective means of doing that or it's perceived to do that.”
Corrigan adds that protests are sometimes the only way to force politicians to listen to communities.
"When you do see violence, when you do see people being injured or killed that's something that is very difficult, reputationally for any politician or political system to walk away from."
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