South Africa is a country built on the struggle for freedom, dignity and justice. Our democracy was born from the courage of people who stood up against oppression and demanded a better future for all.
The right to protest is therefore an important part of our constitutional democracy.
It gives ordinary citizens a voice when leaders fail them and provides a platform for communities to demand accountability.
However, when protests descend into intimidation, vandalism, looting and violence, we must ask ourselves a difficult question: At what point does the fight for justice become an injustice against our own people?
Recent scenes in Pietermaritzburg's city centre and Durban have once again highlighted the devastating consequences of unruly protests. Roads have been brought to a standstill, businesses disrupted and residents left anxious about their safety.
While the grievances behind these demonstrations may be genuine, the methods used to express them can cause far more harm than the problems they seek to address. The first victims are ordinary South Africans.
When roads are blocked and public transport is disrupted, it is not politicians who necessarily suffer the greatest consequences. It is the nurse who cannot reach the hospital, the patient who misses an appointment, the learner who cannot get to school, and the worker who loses a day's wages because they cannot reach their workplace.
For a family already struggling to afford food, electricity and transport, losing even one day's income can have serious consequences. These are people who are already battling the same challenges that protesters claim to oppose.
Why should they be made to suffer further?
A protest that prevents an ordinary citizen from earning a living or accessing essential services risks punishing the very community it claims to represent. Small businesses are another casualty of destruction.
Across Pietermaritzburg and Durban, countless small business owners have invested their savings, time and energy into building livelihoods. A shop in the central business district may represent years of sacrifice by a family determined to create a better future.
When looting and vandalism destroy that business, the consequences extend far beyond broken windows and stolen stock. Employees may lose their jobs. Suppliers may lose customers. Families may lose their primary source of income.
Some businesses may never recover, particularly when insurance does not cover all the losses or when repeated unrest makes trading impossible. Ironically, the people who ultimately suffer may be those already living in poverty.
Businesses that close cannot employ people, and investors are less likely to establish new enterprises in areas where their property and employees are at risk.
We cannot demand economic opportunities while simultaneously destroying the conditions needed to create them. We must also confront the danger of misplaced anger.
South Africans have legitimate reasons to be frustrated. Unemployment remains a serious challenge, crime threatens our communities, gender-based violence continues to devastate families, and corruption undermines public confidence.
Concerns about service delivery and immigration also require honest, lawful and practical engagement. However, frustration cannot justify lawlessness.
If we are concerned about crime, looting only adds to the problem. If we demand respect for the law, we cannot selectively disregard it when emotions run high. If we want government to protect our rights, we must recognise that the rights of other citizens deserve equal protection.
No individual should be threatened, assaulted or have their property destroyed because of their nationality, background or circumstances. Problems such as unemployment, crime and failing public services require evidence-based solutions, effective policing, accountable leadership and functioning institutions.
Scapegoating vulnerable people or taking the law into our own hands will not deliver those solutions. There is a difference between protesting and destroying.
Peaceful protest is a powerful democratic tool. It can expose injustice, unite communities and pressure leaders to act. But violence, intimidation and looting weaken the message and shift attention away from the original grievance.
Instead of discussing the failures that prompted the protest, the public is left debating the destruction that followed. Those who organise demonstrations have a responsibility to promote peaceful conduct, communicate clearly with authorities and discourage criminal behaviour.
Law enforcement must also act professionally, proportionately and without discrimination, protecting peaceful demonstrators and the wider public alike.
Communities, meanwhile, should channel their concerns into constructive action: reporting crime, participating in community policing forums, engaging elected representatives, supporting local initiatives and organising peaceful demonstrations that respect the rights of others.
South Africa needs solutions, not another cycle of destruction. Every act of vandalism leaves a financial cost. Every blocked road creates uncertainty. Every threatened business owner loses confidence. Every frightened resident becomes more concerned about the future of their community.
Repeated unrest can deepen divisions and make the task of rebuilding trust even more difficult. We must stop confusing destruction with courage and intimidation with patriotism.
True courage means standing up for what is right without deliberately harming innocent people. True patriotism means caring enough about our country to protect its people, institutions and livelihoods while demanding that they work better.
As residents of Pietermaritzburg, Durban and communities across South Africa, we must ask ourselves what kind of country we want to leave to our children. Do we want streets characterised by fear, businesses behind barricades and neighbours turning against one another?
Or do we want communities where people can work, study, trade and live without fear?
Our anger may be justified, but our actions must be responsible. We cannot build a better South Africa by tearing down the little that ordinary people have managed to build.
The right to protest must be protected, but so must the rights of those who are not protesting. Let us demand justice without creating new victims, accountability without anarchy, and change without destruction.
South Africa does not need more destroyers. It needs nation builders. Our future depends not only on what we demand from our leaders, but also on how we treat one another while demanding it.
**Jay Jugwanth is a retired teacher and a member of the Pietermaritzburg Ved Dharam Sabha. He writes in his personal capacity.
** The views expressed do not necessarily reflect the views of IOL or post.co.za.