south africa: Break the Meter - Enjoy the Water

"Break the Meter - Enjoy the Water"
04.24.2003
by Francois L'ÉCUYER

When Johannesburg Water started installing pre-paid water meters in their
community in the weeks running up to the World Summit on Sustainable
Development (WSSD), residents of Orange Farm in South Africa got a taste of
today's conception of "sustainability :" privatization of basic services, cost
recovery policies, and tariff increases. For the one and a half million people
living in Orange Farm, an informal settlement 50km south of Johannesburg where
unemployment reaches 80 percent, these policies mean cut-offs and evictions. A
harsh reality for an increasing number of people in the new, neoliberal South
Africa.

In August 2002, the pre-paid water supply system for was still in a "pilot"
phase, implemented only in one section of Orange Farm, Drieziek Extension 4.
But people didn't wait for the pre-paid meters to be imposed on the rest of
the town before organizing themselves. The Orange Farm Water Crisis Committee
(OWCC) was created by local activists and started mobilizing the community.
There were public meetings and mass rallies, along with taxi and church
gatherings, to inform people about the reality of pre-paid meters. The spread
of protest graffiti helped foment awareness and resistance.

"We had to fight against a lot of misinformation," says Bricks Mokolo, a
member of the OWCC. "Our municipal councillor and his clique were telling the
people that the water was 'pre-paid,' so already paid by the government. And
when the Johannesburg Water technicians came in Drieziek Extension 2 to
install the pre-paid meters, they also lied to the residents, telling them
they were installing sanitation !"

People living in Orange Farm and elsewhere had high expectations of the 1994
democratic elections. The African National Congress (ANC) promised "a better
life for all," including the provision of water, electricity, sanitation, and
proper housing, and - most importantly - jobs for their community. The 1994
Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP), drafted by the unions and
fully endorsed by the ANC as its electoral manifesto, established a commitment
to meet two major challenges head on : the government would simultaneously
create jobs while extending basic services to the newly enfranchised majority.

But Mandela and his government quickly changed their mind. By 1996 Thabo
Mbeki, then Vice President, imposed GEAR (Growth, Employment and
Redistribution), a financially orthodox macroeconomic strategy of
privatization and cuts in social spending. Facing a huge demand for quality
housing and access to electricity and water, the ANC believed that only the
private sector could efficiently reverse the inequalities left by a century of
segregation and apartheid.

Following the policies prescribed by GEAR, the Johannesburg Metropolitan
Council initiated its own restructuration. 8 000 municipal workers were
retrenched in 2000-2001 after most municipal services were farmed out to
private contractors. In January 2001 a new company, Johannesburg Water, was
created by the city of Johannesburg to provide water and sanitation.

Only one month later, a 5-year contract for the management and billing of
water services in Johannesburg was awarded to Water and Sanitation Services
South Africa (WSSA), a subsidiary of the French water giant Suez - Lyonnaise
des Eaux. Following the implementation of these privatization policies
throughout the country, the attacks on South Africa's poor only worsened. In
2000, pre-paid water meters were introduced in KwaZulu-Natal. Facing recurrent
cut-offs because they were unable to afford the pre-paid cards, people had no
other choice than to get their water from surrounding rivers. The result was
catastrophic : 300 people dead and more than 120 000 infected in the biggest
(and ongoing) cholera outbreak in South African history.

Since 1996, more than 10 million South Africans have lost their access to
water, a direct consequence of the privatization and cost recovery policies
which have incrased tariffs up to 600 percent.

When OWCC activists heard that Ronnie Kasrils, the Minister of Water Affairs,
was coming to Orange Farm on October 1 to officially launch the installation
of pre-paid water meters all over the township, they didn't miss the occasion.
Strong from their mobilizations during the WSSD, they organised a mass meeting
two days before the Minister's visit. The message sent to the local ANC
councillor by over 3 000 attendees was clear : Orange Farm citizens don't want
pre-paid water. The minister's celebratory launch had to be cancelled though
the program is still going forward. Meanwhile, the graffiti still spoke
simply, demanding "Free Water for All !" or urging residents to "Break the
Meter - Enjoy the Water !"

Francois L'ÉCUYER

P.S. François L'Écuyer, Alternatives Newspaper The author is a project officer
for Africa at Alternatives

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