The introduction of prepaid water meters in Phiri, Soweto, was unlawful and violated the residents’ constitutional right to equality, the Johannesburg High Court heard on Monday.
Court 6F was filled with members of the Inner-City Resource Centre and the Coalition against Water Privatisation — all in support of Phiri residents as they mounted a legal challenge in a three-year battle for access to water.
Outside, protesters — who had marched to the court — sang songs and chanted.
Advocate Wim Trengove, representing five Phiri residents, told the court that the manner in which the prepaid meters were introduced was unlawful and ”violated the principles of legality”.
Residents were forced to choose between backyard taps and prepaid meters — failing to choose between the two would mean having their water cut.
This is what prompted many residents to choose prepaid water meters, charged Trengove.
There was no provision in the city’s by-laws relevant to cutting residents’ water supplies that accommodated this threat.
”There is no provision that says that water can be cut if people don’t choose one or other option … [this] was not sourced in law and therefore violated the principles of legality,” he told the court.
”… People were bullied into accepting prepaid meters.”
The installation of these meters also violated residents’ constitutionally enshrined right to the access of sufficient water.
Trengove argued that the city provided a standard option for Johannesburg residents where people used as much water as they pleased and were billed at the end of the month.
”Rich people are given the luxury of using water first and paying later,” he said.
This system was never offered to the residents of Phiri.
Trengove added that there was discrimination in the way the city treated the rich, mostly white residents of Johannesburg and the poor, mostly black residents.
”Discrimination between the rich mostly white residents on the one hand, and the poor mostly black residents on the other, is sheer discrimination on grounds of poverty and race … There is absolutely no justification for that,” he said.
He said the city could not argue that they introduced the prepaid meters due to bad debt in Phiri, as they did not provide any evidence of this and questioned why the city did not give residents in white areas the same options when they defaulted on their payments.
”… clearly it is a case of indirect discrimination based on race,” Trengove said.
The application would last three days, until December 5, with the city responding to the residents’ application on Tuesday.
On Wednesday, the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry, another respondent in the matter, would have its view heard in court.
Meanwhile, one of the applicants, Sophia Malekutu, an elderly resident who has lived at 361B in Phiri since 1954, said it had become difficult to live in the area because of the water problems.
She said she went without water for nine months recently.
”It was stolen and not replaced for nine months … my neighbour said could take water, I mustn’t ask. I can take but I was shy because they were buying water for me … you don’t know how heavy I lived for those nine months,” Malekutu said.
Trengove said he hoped for an outcome in which his clients were given more water resources, enough for a ”decent human existence”.
The application was for the city to provide 50 litres of free basic water per person per day. — Sapa