Last week, South African president Thabo Mbeki, during a state visit to Malaysia, reportedly suggested linking up with groups in developed countries concerned with the negative effects of globalisation. "They may act in ways you and I may not like and break windows in the street but the message they communicate relates," said Mbeki. This week, Mbeki’s trade delegation was off to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) meeting in Cancun, Mexico, where critics expect little of benefit to emerge for those suffering the negative effects of globalisation.
Meanwhile, far away from Cancun and closer to home, in Phiri, Soweto, residents are standing up to the first phase of a plan to install pre-paid water meters by Johannesburg Water (JW). Pre-paid meters stop all water supplies unless water is paid for in advance and the company has been installing the devices under the name 'Operation Gcin'amazni'. The company is linked to French multinational Suez Lyonnaisse des Eaux and the installation of the meters forms part of a strategy of privatisation of basic services.
Last weekend, residents in Phiri angrily protested against the meters. Seven people, including former African National Congress councillor Trevor Ngwane, now the leader of the Soweto Electricity Crisis Committee, a group that has protested against the installation of pre-paid electricity meters, were arrested for allegedly damaging pipes and intimidating workers. On Monday, September 8, resistance continued. Those opposed to the project have been arrested, denied bail and interdicted.
According to South Africa’s Mail and Guardian newspaper, The Freedom of Expression Institute (FXI) is taking JW to court in a bid to gain access to information about the plan to install pre-paid water meters in Soweto and Johannesburg. Researcher Ebrahim Harvey is conducting the litigation through the FXI. Harvey says there is no adequate research in place to assess the possible negative effects of the system in low-income, high-unemployment areas. It could increase hardship, ill-health and poverty, he told the Mail & Guardian. Harvey argues in the same article that pre-paid meters represent a brutal commodification of water: “What this (meter system) means is that after consuming the present small lifeline of 6 000 litres of free water per family - for those who have the infrastructure and receive it - no family will get any water if they do not readily have the cash to buy pre-paid coupons or vouchers with which to recharge the meter … Recognising water as the most essential of human needs, and, at a time of rising unemployment and poverty in poor black communities, it does not require an economist to see that these meters are going to lead to even greater poverty and ill-health. It is probably such a realisation that galvanised the action to oppose the installation of these meters last week in Soweto.”
Also quoted in the Mail and Guardian, Ngwane said: “It is unjust to experiment with pre-paid meters in the community of the poorest of the poor. Instead of prioritising upgrading water infrastructure, the council is trying to secure a return on its investment.”
The Anti-Privatisation Forum (APF), which is campaigning against the meters, said in a press statement: “We are opposed to the ANC government's GEAR policy (neo-liberal economic policy) that allows our water to be owned and run by private companies… Water is a human right, not a privileged commodity that can only be enjoyed by those who can afford it. Everyone must get water.”
According to the APF, eight community residents have been arrested on charges of 'malicious damage to property' and are now being subjected to apartheid-era bail conditions that include: a ban on any 'interference' with Operation Gcin'amanzi'; a ban on coming within 50 metres of any physical work of Operation Gcin'amanzi; and, a ban on attending/participating in, any meeting or gathering dealing with Operation Gcin'amanzi.
The APF wants the meters declared illegal, saying “they are the practical means being used to violate fundamental human rights to water”. They point out that the meters are illegal in the United Kingdom, where the High Court declared pre-paid water meters unlawful in 1998.
The residents of Phiri are unlikely to get any help from the WTO meetings in Cancun, which critics fear will result in the deepening of exactly the kind of policies that extend profit-making into basic commodities such as water. Nor are they likely to get any support from Mbeki. Despite his claims of solidarity with those protesting the kind of effects that global economic policies have on the poor, the message of the Phiri community is probably not one that he really relates to.
SOURCES:
http://www.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=344375&group=webcast
http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?ao=19876

* Patrick Burnett