NELSON Mandela Bay and a nearby town were in flames this year as disgruntled residents took to the streets to voice their dissatisfaction with service delivery.
Protests have seen municipal buildings and councillors' homes burnt, people being shot with rubber bullets, roads blocked with anything from burning tyres to rubbish, and angry residents dumping buckets of human faeces at councillors' office.
As a Herald team drove around this month to the top 10 places affected by service violence, we found that not much has changed.
The roads still have potholes, sewage is flooding streets, and most of the houses still need to be renovated.
Nationally, there were 176 major service delivery protests against local governments this year, according to the Municipal Hotspots Monitor database of 278 municipalities. The Eastern Cape is the second most protestafflicted province, making up 18%. Gauteng is top with 21%.
Incidents in the Eastern Cape included:
1. Kirkwood, where protests resulted in the burning of municipal buildings and a councillor's house;
2. Uitenhage, where roads were barricaded with burning tyres, people were shot and a leader's home was set on fire;
3. Joe Slovo, where cars were pelted with stones, roads were blocked with burning tyres and the deputy mayor locked inside a councillor's office;
4. Chatty, where a number of protests took place;
5. Motherwell, where protests resulted in municipal vehicles being burnt;
6. Missionvale, where residents dumped a bucket of faeces on a councillor's doorstep;
7. Qaqawuli in New Brighton, where residents threatened to throw a bucket of human faeces at the councillor's office if their demands were not met. Residents of Red Location also closed its renowned museum as they demand better houses;
8. Silvertown, where residents blocked roads because they are "tired of empty promises";
9. Coega, where protests turned ugly when residents demanded houses; and
10. Schauderville, where residents burnt tyres and blocked Searle Road with rocks. These protests are an indication of the government's failure to deliver basic services to the people, analysts say.
In Kirkwood, Phumla Mabombo, 45, of Moses Mabhida location, said: "Our actions were all in vain because nothing has been done except that we were fed more promises. Our roads are full of potholes. Even the RDP houses they are making noises about don't have working toilets. Government funds are being misused.
"In these 20 years of democracy, the only language they understand is when we burn."
Bongiwe Magala, 22, of Chris Hani in Uitenhage, said one of the reasons people resorted to burning was the high rate of unemployment. "An idle mind is the devil's workshop. When the ruling party took over in 1994, it made all sorts of promises but it has dismally failed to fulfil a lot of them.
"If there was employment for the youth there would be no burning. There are also a lot of service delivery problems and the only way to get the government people to listen is by barricading the main roads with burning tyres and rubbish," he said.
In Joe Slovo, Nomthandazo Koli, 42, said to get a quick response from the municipality they had to block roads and create burning obstacles.
"When people are just singing, they don't get a response from the municipal officials. That is why people end up burning tyres and blocking cars from passing.
"Once we cause chaos, officials are quick to come and listen to our grievances.
"Even though they don't deliver at times, at least they know that we are not happy," she said.
In the Chatty area, Ntomboxolo Kinana, 30, said burning attracted a lot of attention, including that of the police and the media.
"Another way of getting attention is to fight with the Somali tuckshop owners.
"In our area we still don't have proper roads or houses.
"They always promise us heaven and earth when they want our votes, but after they get these we no longer hear anything from them," she said.
Mzwandile Klaas, 32, of Missionvale, said residents even got tired of burning because there were no improvements and their homes still had cracks.
"When we call a meeting with the local councillor he ignores us. We decided as the community to empty toilet buckets at his office because when we burn it does not affect him.
"That way he will fight for us to get flushing toilets like everybody else," he said.
Most protesters agree that they burn because they want the government's attention.
But in most areas, the situation is still the same.
Houses are still cracked and in some areas the community are still using bucket toilets.
Municipal IQ economist Karen Heese said: "We have seen a rash of protests in Nelson Mandela Bay informal settlements over the last few months, which have added to protest activity in smaller towns like Kirkwood, Jeffreys Bay and Port St Johns over the course of the year.
"What is a worry for us is that protest activity seems to have picked up as an increasingly common way of expressing unhappiness with municipalities and other governance structures."
Municipal spokesman Mthubanzi Mniki said the protests had cost the municipality thousands of rands, but officials did not yet have the total cost/
"That is the information we will get from different departments. [Calculating the figures] is still a work in progress.
"The money we use to repair damage caused by the protesters is the money that is supposed to be used for people who don't have anything.
"It is a pity that we end up doing the same things," he said. - Yoliswa Sobuwa