Higher Education Minister and South African Communist Party general secretary Blade Nzimande has accused criminal elements of hijacking mounting service delivery protests, SABC news reported on Sunday.

Nzimande was speaking to SACP supporters in Inanda outside Durban.

Service delivery protests throughout the country have been marred by violence and the looting of shops.

Nzimande said African National Congress (ANC) councillors should continuously interact with communities to stay abreast of people's concerns.

He warned communities that criminals are taking advantage of protests to advance their own aims.

"As the SACP we do recognise, like the ANC, that there are genuine problems that our people have that need to be attended to. It's precisely what is contained in the ANC manifesto and this government is prepared to tackle those.

"What concerns us is that there's a criminal element now which is wanting to exploit some of these grievances to cause looting, to steal people's properties, to harass some of our African brothers and sisters who are not South African citizens," Nzimande said.

Sharing his sentiments was ANC chairperson Baleka Mbethe, who said while some of the protests were genuine, others were intended at undermining the legitimacy of the government.

"Comrades, we must be able to separate genuine protests from those that seek to undermine the legitimacy of our government. We must develop early warning systems that alert us of the impending dangers of failure to deliver or ardent provocateurs who wish to reserve our communities for illegitimate causes," Mbethe said.