These provinces had the most service delivery protests in 2019

Gauteng remains the province where the most service delivery protests occur in SA, followed by KwaZulu-Natal and the Western Cape.

That's according to the latest data released by Municipal IQ on Thursday, which tracked protest trends in the country during 2019.

“Although 2019 recorded a significant number of service delivery protests, especially in the first few months of the year, these tailed off after May’s general elections, bringing the annual tally behind 2018,” the organisation said in a statement.

Data on service delivery protests by province during 2019 indicated that Gauteng took pole position with 24%, KwaZulu-Natal came in second place with 21% and the Western Cape third at 19%. The Northern Cape recorded 1% of tracked protests.

Municipal IQ MD Kevin Allan said despite adverse economic indicators, service delivery protests dipped significantly between October and December 2019.

“While the relative lull in service delivery protests does not mean that all is well in local government, communities appear not to taking their unhappiness to the streets as frequently as they did around general elections 2018,” he said.

Economist Karen Heese echoed similar sentiments: “It may be possible for 2018 to keep the record for number of service delivery protests.

“There appears to be an opportunity to channel community engagement through democratic processes [like ward committees, petitions processes and community meetings]. To avert protests, with a challenging year likely to be ahead for local government, councillors and administrators must work collectively to ensure service delivery consolidate this apparent goodwill,” said Heese.

Municipal IQ tracks protests staged by community members against a municipality as recorded by the media or other public domain sources, including police press releases.