Abstract
Twenty-five schools were burnt. Others were damaged. This is during the protest at Vuwani area. Five houses were also torched. Businesses were brought to complete shutdown for more than three months.The protests followed lack of effective communication and consultation between Municipal Demarcation Board (MDB), government and communities on matters of municipality boundaries. The MDB took a decision that parts of Vuwani would be incorporated into the Malamulele villages to establish a new municipality, LIM 345. This angered Vuwani communities allegedly because they were not consulted. The MDB denied the allegations.A qualitative study was conducted in the area where there were interactions with government, and community members. Media reports were also used to substantiate the findings. It was revealed through the study results that although there was some communication between government institutions including the MDB and community members, this was not effective, hence violent protests. This paper is intended to provide strategies for future effective communication by state functionaries to avoid violent protests caused by ineffective communication.
Highlights
It is easy for government to engage traditional leaders as representatives of community members in their territories
Some community members believe traditional leaders can collude with government because they benefit from government in one way or the other
This is consistent with the findings of Musitha (2012) in that traditional leaders are suspected of being remnants of colonial and apartheid systems
Summary
The agreement included a clause to allow learners to go back to schools (Capricorn Voice 03–09 August 2016:2) This agreement followed three months of total shutdown by angry residents who embarked on protests and forced business, transport, schooling and other economic activities to standstill. This was in a response to earlier violent protests by the Malamulele residents who demanded to be removed from the Venda-speaking–dominated Thulamela Municipality and have their own Xitsonga-speaking municipality. The MDB found that some municipalities in Vhembe district and other areas had to be merged as they were not economically viable. The municipality for the people of Malamulela was found not viable, incorporating villages of Vuwani
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