Jaspreet Kindra
The government’s plan to privatise municipal services countrywide has created a gruelling test for the ruling alliance of the African National Congress, the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) and the South African Communist Party as they gear up for November’s local government elections.
Cash-strapped municipalities will now have the option of selling council-owned essential services such as water and electricity – or could enter into private partnerships to run them.
The plan to privatise municipal services has sent alarm bells ringing though the ranks of the left wing of the alliance, already bridling at the government’s plans to embark on a programme of mass retrenchments in the public service.
The government’s strategy for municipalities is therefore providing fertile ground for the left wing to make its voice heard as the ANC forges ahead with the government’s conservative macro- economic programme.
The legal framework for the plan is provided in the Local Municipal Systems Bill to be introduced in Parliament next month. The Bill, along with the Municipal Structures Act, the Demarcation Act and two other Bills dealing with municipal finance, will complete the legal framework for the transformation of local government.
Local councils will need to have made their decisions on restructuring before the local government elections in November, after which the new boundaries drawn up by the Municipal Demarcation Board take effect. This gives the unions only seven months to influence decisions on privatisation and outsourcing that will have a significant impact on the debate on economic policy within the alliance.
The testing ground for the privatisation strategy has been the Greater Johannesburg Metropolitan Council, which is wrapping up plans to sell its airport and stadium and is entering into private partnerships to run most of its essential services.
The row between the council’s unions and the ANC that followed these decisions revealed a union strategy to oppose the plans, irrespective of any compromises offered by the ANC councillors.
It is obvious from the mediation document drawn up during the council dispute that the South African Municipal Workers’ Union’s (Samwu) opposition was political – the council put extensive compromises on the table, including a three-year job guarantee.
The Johannesburg council’s restructuring plan encompasses the privatisation of Rand airport, Metro Gas, the Johannesburg stadium and public-private partnerships to run 10 other essential services.
Johannesburg city manager Ketso Gordhan says the implementation of the privatisation plan is complete. “Negotiations are now over; the ball is in the unions’ court,” he says, admitting the dispute continues.
The role of the SACP is more intriguing. The party – despite the staunch ideological opposition to privatisation it shares with Cosatu – is emerging as a “midwife” to ease the tensions between the partners. The SACP, led by its general secretary, Blade Nzimande, has recently adopted a more pragmatic stand on the issue, according to SACP sources, after initially opposing any privatisation outright.
SACP deputy general secretary Jeremy Cronin said this week that “wherever possible” the municipality or the public sector should be the preferred service provider.
The chair of the parliamentary portfolio committee on provincial and local government, Yunus Carrim, who is also an SACP politburo member, echoes the view that iGoli 2002 is a test case for other metropolitan and local councils in the country. “It is crucial that Johannesburg works its way out of the current impasse.”
Carrim suggests that the antagonism could be softened if privatisation were presented as only one of a number of possible forms of restructuring.
Samwu officials this week expressed support for the alliance, but reaffirmed their commitment to “vigorously” opposing privatisation.
Cosatu representative Kim Jurgensen said the federation has always wanted basic services to remain with the state and it will oppose any move which would lead to retrenchments.
Samwu intends to resuscitate its application lodged at the National Economic, Development and Labour Council to embark on a protest action. Its initial application was suspended last week following an interdict brought by the metropolitan council.
Mncedisi Nontsele, Samwu’s national secretary, described the union’s relationship with the ANC as “lukewarm to warm – lukewarm when issues such as privatisation are being discussed, warm when we talk about our overall commitment to the alliance”.
Key alliance players are expecting a tripartite alliance summit to decide a common election manifesto which will provide a basis for constructive negotiations.
According to ANC representative Nat Serache, ‘The alliance is cemented with blood” and there is no “fundamental difference but a difference of opinion. We have a common objective – the question is we have to find an acceptable way to achieve the objective.”