Victory, renewed attack and consolidation:

1404 words

Victory, renewed attack and consolidation:
The SECC struggle for free services for all

The Soweto Electricity Crisis Committee (SECC) has experienced dramatic developments in its struggle for electricity in recent months. First, the SECC tasted victory when Eskom temporarily suspended electricity cut-offs. Then it faced renewed attack in the form of the government’s Service Delivery Framework. Earlier this month, the organisation went through a period of consolidation at its first conference.

A Taste of Victory

More than a thousand Sowetans, young and mostly old, celebrated Eskom’s suspension of electricity cut-offs in Soweto, Vaal and East Rand townships. The event took place in October 2001 at Orlando East Communal Hall. The gathering was truly remarkable, so many people, so much spirit, so much happiness.

Many people do not realise how important electricity is to the life of the working class. Research shows that good health, education, small business opportunities and general quality of life is closely related to the degree of access to basic services such as water and electricity. To “low income” people, access to electricity can mean the difference between life and death, violence and tranquility, a fulfilling life or wasted existence. The excitement and joy of the people in Orlando East was ample proof of this.

The victory of the people over Eskom was truly amazing in that it was a decisive shift in the balance of forces between the ANC government, which now unashamedly enforces the interests of the capitalist class, and its increasingly disenchanted black working class constituency. Since political independence in 1994, the revolution asserted itself briefly as the working class gained some initiative against the bourgeoisie in South Africa. But this was short lived as the ANC jettisoned the Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP) and introduced the Growth, Employment and Redistribution Strategy (Gear) as the macro-economic policy for the country. Since then, the working class has been under attack and must be quite groggy from all the punches that have rained on it, including retrenchments, casualisation, Hiv/Aids policy, water and electricity cut-offs, house and land evictions, price increases, etc.

The class agenda of the ANC government is being revealed daily to ordinary people. The party is turning its back on its support base and refuses to be accountable to it. It sides with the bourgeoisie on all major questions, it is riddled with corruption and is openly making a virtue of the black elite’s self-enrichment schemings while attacking the living standards of the majority of the working class.

The working class in South Africa really needed this victory over Eskom and the ANC government. The memory of the power of black workers and their communities, of the hegemony of working class politics, of grassroots mobilization and militancy, of notions of people’s power and working class leadership of the struggle, was fading rapidly among the masses. Then suddenly, out of the blue, the rag-tag SECC outfit of unemployed youth and struggling Soweto aunties managed to force a concession from Eskom. Residents forced Eskom and the ANC government to retreat in the face of mounting opposition. The forgotten power of the working class was being recovered.

Many people forget that it was black workers and their strikes in 1973 in Durban that, after a 20-year period of lull and defeat of the struggle by the apartheid regime, opened up an era of revolution which culminated in the demise of apartheid and the victory of one person one vote in South Africa.

It is the same spirit that we see in the militancy and feistiness of the mass campaign against cut-offs and for affordable electricity in Soweto. The SECC embarked on Operation Khanyisa, a bold campaign where teams of residents connect residents who have been cut off by Eskom. Moreover, the SECC is leading the people to challenge the “leadership” of councilors, civics and political parties who have failed to take up the electricity issue.

All the speakers during the victory celebration in Orlando East were adamant that “the struggle continues”. Significantly, representatives from East Rand and Vaal community organizations were present at the celebration. These organizations are united with the SECC in the Anti-Privatisation Forum (APF), a coalition of organizations which co-ordinates and links the various struggles against cut-offs, evictions, retrenchments and high prices.

The ANC and Eskom hit back

The fact that Eskom’s suspension of cut-offs went beyond Soweto and included the Vaal and the East Rand, shows how seriously Eskom viewed the SECC’s challenge to its World Bank-inspired “cost-recovery” policies and the extent of the concession it had to make. If Eskom had continued relentlessly cutting off residents despite opposition, the resistance was bound to spread to other townships. This would do increasingly serious damage to the ANC’s political credibility and its claim to loyalty among ordinary township residents. But, by bowing to mass pressure, Eskom was courting the danger of teaching the masses that mass action and defiance are tools that produce winning results for residents. It was also opening the door to further demands, such as the scrapping of arrears and the provision of free electricity for all.

Eskom emphasized that the suspension of cut-offs was only temporary and that they would “continuously review the situation… and determine the next course of action” while continuing to “deal with illegal connections”. It was playing for time while sticking to its neoliberal user-must-pay policy framework.

The backlash was not long in coming. Before the year was out, the government and Eskom concocted a plan called the Service Delivery Framework (SDF). They claim to “have engaged with various stakeholders representing several bodies and organisations” and that the SDF “was debated and developed by all stakeholders involved.” A closer look at the list of those involved reveals various structures of national, provincial and local government, Eskom and the South African National Civic Organisation (Sanco). The latter organisation, a structure that is largely dysfunctional in Soweto, is the only community organisation that was consulted.

The plan entails getting residents to make monthly payments again at the same unaffordable prices for the same unacceptable standard of service. Residents will be required to pay half their arrears, which, for most households, run into thousands or tens of thousands of rands. The plan envisages the other half of the arrears being held in a “suspense account” over the residents’ heads as a means of forcing residents to keep up with the onerous payments (see box).

The Minister of Public Enterprises, Jeff Radebe, came to Soweto to sell the SDF. Sanco organised meetings for Radebe to address, but they were attended in small numbers. A few hundred at most attended the meeting in Orlando, to vociferous protest by the SECC outside. This was in stark contrast to a meeting organised by the SECC a few days later, attended by close to a thousand residents, at which the plan was dismissed.

There is also a more sinister side to this latest attack by the government and Eskom. The SDF threatens to conduct “an extensive audit to identify illegal connections, vandalised equipment and meters, which have been tampered with”, and to follow “strict criminal charges and prosecutions”. The minister publicly referred to the SECC as criminals and there have been attempts to prosecute individuals.

At the SECC meeting, people were defiant. They agreed to intensify the boycott of payments and ensure that Operation Khanyisa continues to re-connect households that have been cut off.

Consolidation

In March this year, the SECC held its first conference. The organisation restated its commitment to fighting the struggle for electricity for all. In addition, it recognised the need to engage in related struggles around jobs, food, housing, water, transport, health care and education. In particular, it identified the need to oppose the Johannesburg City Council, which has sent final notices to residents who are behind in payments for services. It concretised its positions around these issues into a central demand, free basic services for all (see box). The SECC also committed itself to taking up the challenge posed by the vacuum of political parties, organisations or civics in Soweto.

At the October victory celebration, everyone agreed as they ate “French” polony sandwiches and drank orange squash that the victory over Eskom was but the beginning of great struggles ahead for the working class in this part of Africa. A tough struggle too, but one that the SECC is well set to rise up to if it continues to build on its beginnings.