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Eastern Cape Safety MEC, Helen Sauls-August has called on the police to crack-down on those criminal elements who take over legitimate service delivery protests.
She was speaking in Port Elizabeth on Thursday during the launch of Safety Month.
Sauls-August said she cannot keep quiet and condemns the criminal activity linked to recent protests in Uitenhage where the homes of councillors were torched and a spaza shop set alight this week.
She said these are not service delivery protests but pure criminal activity.
"When people are being addressed by councillors telling them the plans and people are singing that we are going to kill you, no matter what information you bring, that is a criminal activity," she said.
Sauls-August said "if SAPS is not going to deal with those issues we will only see more and more of these violent protests being taken over by the criminal element".
