Protest nation : the right to protest in South Africa
Jane Duncan (Author)
South Africa has become a nation defined by its protests. Protests can, and do, bring societal problems to public attention in direct, at times dramatic, ways. But governments the world over are also tempted to suppress this right, as they often feel threatened by public challenges to their authority. Apartheid South Africa had a shameful history of repressing protests. The architects of the country's democracy expressed a determination to break with this past and recognise protest as a basic democratic right. Yet, today, there is concern about the violent nature of protests. Protest Nation challenges the dominant narrative that it has become necessary for the state to step in to limit the right to protest in the broader public interest because media and official representations have created a public perception that violence has become endemic to protests. Bringing together data gathered from municipalities, the police, protestor and activist interviews, as well as media reports, the book analyses the extent to which the right to protest is respected in democratic South Africa. It throws a spotlight on the municipal role in enabling or mostly thwarting the right. This book is a call to action to defend the right to protest: a right that is clearly under threat. It also urges South Africans to critique the often-skewed public discourses that inform debates about protests and their limitations
Print Book, English, 2016
University of KwaZulu-Natal Press, Pietermaritzburg, South Africa, 2016
xvi, 240 pages ; 23 cm.
9781869143237, 186914323X
1091721422
1. Protests and state repression: an international perspective 2013 2. Understanding the right to protest in South Africa 2013 3. The legislative and policy context for the right to protest in South Africa 2013 4. The right to protest in repressive contexts: the cases of the Mbombela and eThekwini Municipalities 2013 5. Political diversity and the right to protest in metropolitan municipalities: Johannesburg and the Nelson Mandela Bay Metro 2013 6. The Rise and fall of social movements: The Makana and Lukhanji Municipalities 2013 7. Protests and political shifts in rural areas: the Blue Crane Route, Witzenberg, Langeberg and Breede Valley Local Municipalities 2013 8. Dying by degrees: activist experiences of the right to protest 2013 9. The police and the right to protest 201310. Riot porn: media coverage of protests in South Africa 2013 11. Organic crisis: trends emerging from the protest data