We have been down this road before and it leads nowhere. The latest violent protests in some of our communities have again exposed the inability of our leaders to control their party's members.
It is a shame that, 20 years into our democracy, disgruntled citizens decide to torch public infrastructure that is meant to bring services closer to them.
We believe that our political parties can do more to change the mindset of our communities.
The public-service infrastructure belongs to all of us and destroying it is a direct attack on our democracy.
Over the past few days, protesters in Bronkhorstspruit, east of Pretoria, have set alight a satellite police station, a clinic, a library and a community hall. The protests were apparently triggered by high electricity bills. But why burn down a clinic because of an electricity tariff dispute?
Yesterday, protesting municipal workers - reportedly demanding an extra bonus - threw a petrol bomb into a room in the East London City Hall. Luckily the blaze was quickly doused.
Last week it was a similar script as residents of Relela, Tzaneen, laid siege to the local satellite police station and eventually torched it.
If this trend is not stopped we run the risk of arresting our nation's progress. Then there will be no development in the areas hardest hit by past underdevelopment.
We call upon all political parties - and particularly the ruling party - to do more to educate communities about other ways of venting their anger. Violence and vandalism might have worked in the past to bring a government to its knees, but the anarchy we see today is completely unacceptable - no matter what service-delivery failures communities have to endure.
The government must do far more than issue press statements condemning this scourge - it must act now to stop the terrible damage being inflicted on the very fabric of our democracy.