The violence associated with service delivery protests in South Africa could perhaps be linked to the violent nature of protests during the struggle against apartheid, State Security Minister David Mahlobo said on Tuesday.

Tabling his department’s budget, Mahlobo said government would have to continue its efforts to stamp out vandalism, property destruction and deaths associated with these protests.

“If we look back at the history of the struggle in this country, we can see that ours was a very violent one, where people found their voices through various forms of protests that ended with blood on the floor. It was the darkest period in the history of this country,” said Mahlobo.

“It can be argued that the violent nature of many protests in our country and the violent nature of certain crime categories in society reflect the old violence from which we come from as a nation.”

Mahlobo cited protests around service delivery, violent student protests, tumultuous strikes and those related to a housing shortages and over the demarcation of municipalities.