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NEWS & LETTERS, October 2002
Who owns water in 'new' South Africa?
New York--A protest at the South African consulate here in
August coincided with a court date for 87 people arrested in Johannesburg in
April in a demonstration against electricity and water privatization. The
"Kensington 87" were protesting electricity and water cut-offs and
evictions from houses due to the failure of working class people to keep up with
their bills. Their court date was postponed, but in New York, we let the South
African government know that we support their cause. The "87" were arrested while demonstrating at the mayor's house in the wealthy South Kensington section of Johannesburg, as part of a campaign that began in the poor suburbs of Soweto in 2000 to resist rising prices of public utilities and the ANC government's plans to privatize them, which is sure to raise prices even more. New water fees were also levied by the public authority in
northern Kwazulu-Natal, and many families were similarly cut off and started
taking water from the river. The result was a cholera epidemic with thousands
ill and hundreds dead. According to the Soweto Electricity Crisis Committee (SECC),
the April 6 arrests of the "Kensington 87" occurred when a busload of
Soweto residents--pensioners, unemployed, and youth--marched onto the residence
of Johannesburg mayor Amos Masondo. They attempted to give the mayor a taste of his own
medicine by turning off the electricity to his house. Mayhem followed as the
mayor's bodyguard started firing live ammunition into the protesting crowd and
wounded two people. The protesters retaliated with stones and windows were
broken. The police came and arrested 87 people. The guard was not arrested, but
the 87 face jail sentences of up to five years or huge fines. The SECC was formed in May 2000, at a time when the
electric company (ESKOM) was cutting off electricity at the rate of 20,000
households a month in Soweto. The government's response was to blame the victim
and claim that there was a "culture of non-payment," that is, people
were not overcoming the past habit of boycotting payments used as a weapon
against the old apartheid regime. The government began plans to privatize
electricity at that time. The SECC, after some months of research and education
activities, was transformed into a movement. When ESKOM cut people off, the SECC
sent its struggle-trained technicians, called Operation Khanyisa, to re-connect
the power. This was done under the slogans, "Electricity is a right, not a
privilege" and "It is better to break the law than to break the
poor." Many of Soweto's townships soon had Operation Khanyisa teams. The ANC promised during the 2000 local elections to provide
free basic water and electricity for all, but the promise never really
materialized. Today it is the SECC that states it has adopted socialism as its
vision for the future and is mobilizing behind the demand for free basic
services for all. The SECC is an affiliate of the Anti-Privatisation Forum (APF),
a coalition of mainly community-based organizations fighting against the effects
of privatization and trying to unite labor and community struggles. Our meeting, during the demonstration, with the South
African consul revealed that the ANC government sincerely believes privatization
is the best and only way to develop their country. But little free water is
supplied to the poor, and the new policy of full cost recovery for electricity
and water means great hardship for millions. The situation illustrates how far to the Right the ANC has moved. It seems the only discussion of socialism today remains within that poor Black majority. Activist author Barbara Garson was prominent in organizing
the protest which was sponsored by NY Direct Action Network, NY Green Party, and
the NY News and Letters Committee. --Anne Jaclard |
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