The PAC and Cosatu have teamed up with civic and community groups to boot British multinational Biwater out of Nelspruit
Glenda Daniels
A strident battle has erupted over South Africa’s first test case of water privatisation and even President Thabo Mbeki is said to have entered the fray.
The Pan Africanist Congress and the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) have teamed up in an unprecedented alliance, together with civic organisations and community groups, to boot British multinational Biwater out of Nelspruit.
Biwater was awarded a 30-year contract by the national government in 1999 to take control of water provision from the Nelspruit local council.
A Cosatu affiliate, the South African Municipal and Allied Workers’ Union (Samwu), community groups and the PAC say the privatisation of water is a total debacle, with an astounding increase of 400% in water tariffs together with serious delivery problems. The organisations say residents were paying a flat rate of R70 a month before Biwater took over in 1999, but are now paying between R400 and R500. Where residents have stopped paying their water supply has been cut off.
“Before 1994 people were paying R14 a month for water. Since Biwater was awarded the contract in 1999, they are getting bills of over R1 000,” said PAC national organiser Themba Godi. He conceded that part of this would be for arrears.
Biwater head Graham Gorrod retorted that this figure is “total nonsense they’ve thrown this figure around for some time. Tariffs went up by 10% in 2000 and then 10% this year. The bills of over R1 000 include arrears. There is wastage and indiscriminate use of water.” He would not comment on the campaign by Cosatu and the PAC except to say: “There’s nothing new about this.”
This campaign will challenge the African National Congress to dismantle Biwater and has launched a 100 000-signature petition.
Godi said Mbeki recently told the local council that “under no circumstances must Biwater be allowed to collapse”.
“We have been given information that there is now a special police unit set up to monitor people, from the PAC and Cosatu, who are instigating the boycott against Biwater,” said Godi.
Spokesperson for the presidency Bheki Khumalo said that the government is fully behind the privatisation of water in Nelspruit.
There is a lot at stake, says Godi, because if Biwater does withdraw from Nelspruit it would set a precedent for other water privatisation plans around the country.
He said there “is a lot of anger at the ANC and a sense of betrayal in the community over water”.
Godi said at the last community meeting about water the PAC got 95 extra members who defected from the ANC because of disillusionment over water prices and service delivery. “It was embarrassing because we had fewer than 95 forms for them to fill in.”
ANC Mpumalanga spokesperson Paul Mbenyane denied that they were losing members to the PAC. “No one has come to us to resign.” He said he did not believe that any Cosatu affiliate would be involved in a campaign against the ANC or Biwater. “These are mischievous people, just individuals who are misbehaving; the police are dealing with them.” He said he could not comment on whether residents were unhappy with Biwater.
Between 40% and 60% of rural people in the country don’t have adequate drinking water, says the Rural Development Services Network, an NGO.
Water is a central issue in Cosatu’s anti-privatisation campaign against the government’s privatising of basic services. Biwater was supposed to bring in R350-million to extend water services and expand infrastructure, according to unionist Anna Weekes, of Samwu, but this has not happened.
“We have been completely vindicated. We showed at the start, with the help of the Public Services International research unit in London, that Biwater was not going to bring in the R350-million to upgrade and extend water services. We said they would renege on this agreement or borrow the money at much higher interest rates. These rates would be passed on to water users. This has all come true,” Weekes said.
The problem, she says, is that Biwater has not extended services and water infrastructure over the past three years it still stands at only one tap for every 10 households. Community members feel that meter readings are being inflated.
Residents who are in arrears now risk being sued by the council, which has just hired a legal firm to track down defaulters.
The Department of Water Affairs and Forestry was successful last year in instituting new regulations that undermine the Water Services Act. The Act says water must be delivered by local government and not the private sector. But the new regulations have set the stage for the government to enter into partnerships with private companies on the delivery of water.