South Africa is the most protest-rich country in the world, according to leading security studies experts. The Institute for Security Studies warned that confrontational protests were becoming "endemic" to South Africa's political landscape and the "language" of people who felt disenfranchised.The comments came as the SA Human Rights Commission hearings on ensuring the right to a basic education began yesterday.In his presentation at the hearing, the Department of Basic Education's director-general, Mathanzima Mweli, called for more stringent measures, including lengthy prison sentences and the involvement of the army, to stem violent protest action.The Institute for Security Studies' public violence monitoring project recorded 2880 "incidents of public gathering related to protests or public violence" between 2013 and 2015 - 53% of which were violent.The most recent instances included a week of violent service delivery protests in Durban; Vuwani in Limpopo; and Hammanskraal, north of Pretoria, where schools were burnt and two people killed.Mweli said that, had the army been involved in addition to the police presence , the damage in Vuwani could have been minimised."South Africa remains the most protest-rich country in the world. Protest is not just escalating, it is becoming more confrontational," said Imraan Buccus, a University of KwaZulu-Natal academic specialist in participatory democracy.Research by the Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation found that organisers were often political leaders who used community frustrations to mobilise supporters.The research found that "their true motivation is often political or economic gain", including access to positions of power or "lucrative council business".Nomfundo Mogapi, the centre's executive director, said communities believed that the "power of tyre burning is the smoke"."In our research, communities revealed that the smoke is to call the leaders. This may be the reason for the increased burning of tyres," Mogapi said...