In a statement on Monday, Cope parliamentary leader Mvume Dandala also condemned the government's response to the protests with "increased police brutality and suggestions that a third force is at play".

High-level delegation visits could only bring temporary solutions to the affected areas.

Cope saw government's failure to communicate effectively with its citizens the cause of the protests. Media reports had recorded protesting citizens bemoaning and voicing their demands, including mayors and councillors not talking with or even responding to communities regarding their concerns.

President Jacob Zuma's administration promised to do more working together with South Africans, but the lack of communication and engagement, and inability to encourage community participation by local councillors, would lead to more uprisings.

"Instead of high-level delegations zigzagging the affected protest areas, the ANC government should look no further than the Auditor General's report to deal with corruption in municipalities," Dandala said.

The government should speed up dealing with the lack of competent municipal managers, corrupt practices, including awarding tenders to friends and families who delivered poor quality work, if any at all, and also wasting public funds through outsourcing many functions to consultants.

Cope proposed an urgent genuine public debate to save local government from collapse. The debate would be about what the government should be doing to deliver the required services, instead of using undermining "superficial izimbizo and PR gimmicks".

This debate would encourage citizen participation to shape the manner in which the government should render services across all spheres of government, including municipalities.

"While we blame poor planning and lack of implementation by the Zuma administration, we believe that government's principle of 'batho-pele' [people first] should be defined by the citizens through public hearings and debates that we are proposing.

"Our success as nation lies in a participatory democracy."

Instead of perpetuating violent protests with political solutions such as "the Khutsong Resolution", involving citizens and staying in touch with them to deal with their "bread and butter issues" would eliminate the protests, Dandala said.