ANC suspects its own in service protests

Members of the African National Congress who are vying for administrative posts could be at least partially responsible for the most recent flare-up of service delivery protests, party spokesman Jackson Mthembu told The Times. He’s probably right. Make no mistake, there is a lot of frustration and anger among the people protesting and their gripes are legitimate, but in at least some cases that anger is seemingly being exploited for political ends. The same thing happened during the waves of xenophobic violence in 2008, according to subsequent reports. Those wanting control of local government institutions (sometimes with a view to profiting from corruption once in a position of power) apparently ignited and fanned the flames in different instances.