The Eastern Cape has overtaken Gauteng as the most protest-prone province in the country ahead of the general elections in May.
This is according to a group monitoring municipalities, the Municipal IQ which recently released the findings of its research between January and March this year.
According to organisation the country is likely to see spikes in basic service delivery protests ahead of the May poll with the Eastern Cape taking the lead.
On Wednesday, a basic service delivery turned violent when a group of approximately 100 protesters torched two vehicles in Kwadwesi.
Municipal IQ economist, Karen Heesen, said in 2018 the Eastern Cape overtook Gauteng as the most protest-prone province and still remains “slightly” ahead in the first quarter of 2019.
“There is noteworthy pressure on Eastern Cape municipalities, not only in Nelson Mandela Bay's communities, where repeated protests have taken place, especially in Motherwell but also further afield, in towns like Steynsburg and Lady Grey," she said.
Heesen also said that while “xenophobic elements” to protests remain a concern, she said that it “was not common”.
She said xenophobic elements were only recorded in 4% of service delivery protests staged since the May 2008 outbreak of xenophobic violence.
