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Battle Against 'Prepaid' Water Erupts

by South Africa IMC, Anti-Privatisation Forum

Phiri is becoming South Africa's Cochabamba. It is here, in a section of Soweto, that the battle against 'prepaid' water meters is being waged in earnest. 'Prepaid' meters are devices which stop all water supplies unless water is paid for in advance. Under the name 'Operation Gcin'amazni', the Johannesburg Water Company (JOWCO) has been installing these in Phiri.

The response has been anger, and the destruction of the newly laid infrastructure. JOWCO is effectively controlled and run by French multinational Suez Lyonnaisse des Eaux, and forms part of the strategy of privatisation and corporatisation of basic services, which was adopted by the ANC-led South African government since 1996. At the forefront of the struggle against privatisation have been the poor of the townships - the pensioners, unemployed youth - those who simply have no money to pay for water, those with no voice in the boardrooms of government and business.

In the last week, that struggle has heated up, as activists from the Soweto Electricity Crisis Committee (SECC) and Gauteng Anti-Privatisation Forum (APF) mobilised the Phiri committee to resist 'prepaid' water. The response from the state was to send in the notorious 'Red Ants' (Wozani Security) to defend the 'prepaid' meters, to arrest five members of the SECC / Gauteng APF, and to interdict both organisations and their supporters from opposing JOWCO. On Monday, September 8, the battle continued as SECC / Gauteng APFjoined with Phiri residents to continue that resistance, interdict or no interdict. Seven more people were arrested, but the struggle continues.

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