The2019 service delivery protests refers to a series of protests and civil disturbances taking place across urban areas ofSouth Africa related to poorservice delivery that started inAlexandra on 3 April 2019.^[4][5]

After starting in Alexandra on 3 April the protestors marched to the wealthy nearby neighbourhood ofSandton five days later to gain more attention.^[6] On 9 April the trade unionSAFTU stated their support for the protests and called on other areas inGauteng province to join.^[7] By 11 April 2019 the protests had spread to other major cities in the rest of the country.^[8] Other than Alexandra protests occurred inHammanskraal,Roodepoort,Vereeniging,Kroonstad, Blackheath,^[9]Tshwane,^[10]Bekkersdal,Orange Grove,^[11]Nomzamo^[12]Lingelethu East,^[13]Bergville,^[14]Bekkersdal,^[15]Caledon,^[16]Eersteriver,Rus-ter-Vaal,^[2]Khayelitsha,^[17]Riverlea,^[18] andSoweto.^[19]

The major political parties traded accusations over the cause of the riots.^[6] TheAfrican National Congress (ANC) accused theDemocratic Alliance (DA) of not effectively delivering services to the protesting communities^[20] and the DA made a counter accusation that it was ANC governance in Johannesburg two years before was the root cause of poor service delivery in Alexandra.^[21] The protests were openly supported by the trade unionSAFTU who called on other areas to join the protests.^[22] The DA^[23] andEconomic Freedom Fighters (EFF) accused the ANC of instigating and spreading the protests to discredit them in the run up to the2019 South African general election.^[24][25]

Notable South African academicSteven Friedman, criticised media coverage of the protests for "denigrat[ing] poor people by offering a distorted picture of their lives" and supporting politically motivated narratives that the protests were incited by political parties instead of being driven by genuine grievances.^[26]

• 2019 South African general election

• 2019 protests
• 2019 in South Africa
• 2019 murders in South Africa
• April 2019 crimes in Africa
• April 2019 in South Africa
• Riots and civil disorder in South Africa
• Civil disobedience in South Africa
• Protests in South Africa
• History of Johannesburg

• Articles with short description
• Short description matches Wikidata
• Use dmy dates from August 2019
• Use South African English from April 2019
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