JOHANNESBURG WATER HAS DECLARED WAR ON THE POOR! : IMC-SA

JOHANNESBURG WATER’S WAR AGAINST THE PHIRI COMMUNITY AND THOSE ORGANISATIONS THAT SUPPORT THEIR RESISTANCE

Johannesburg Water is attempting to silence and criminalize the voices of those who are resisting its programme (Operation Gcin’amanzi) of installing pre-paid water meters in the Phiri community of SOWETO. Instead of listening to the very community it claims to be helping, Johannesburg Water has brought in the South African Police Services and the hated ‘Red Ants’ of Wozani Security to crack down on community opposition. Already, 8 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 50m of any physical work of Operation Gcin’amanzi; and, a ban on attending/participating in, any meeting or gathering dealing with Operation Gcin’amanzi.

Johannesburg Water has now gone further and has been granted an interdict by the High Court. According to the court papers, the interdict applies to: 1. Those attempting to interfere with the Gcin’amanzi project; 2. The Soweto Electricity Crisis Committee (SECC); and, 3. The Anti-Privatisation Forum” (APF). The interdict “orders” that all of the above “respondents” are bound by the same conditions as those imposed in the previously mentioned bail conditions. It goes further in authorising the “sheriff of the court to attempt to obtain the names of the first respondents” and to “engage the services of a private security company to assist” in arrests. Even though Johannesburg Water admits that it has no legal way of identifying those “interfering”, and even though the interdict papers have not been properly served on either the SECC or the APF, all those community and SECC/APF members who oppose Operation Gcin’amanzi have now been effectively prevented from engaging in any active resistance.

In a cynical attempt to rationalise such blatant anti-democratic actions, Johannesburg Water’s Executive Director, Anthony Still, has claimed in an affidavit before the High Court that the community of Phiri, alongside the SECC and APF, are “preventing Johannesburg Water from fulfilling its constitutionally-sanctioned mandate to provide safe and clean water”. Of course, no mention is made of the actual constitutional provision of the right to water for all South Africans. Likewise, no mention is made that giving the hated ‘Red Ants’ powers of arrest is effectively an illegal act of privatising law enforcement, much in the same way that the installation of pre-paid water meters is an illegal act of privatising the provision of the most basic resource of life. Instead, Still rationalises such outrageous privatisation of public authority by smugly claiming that it “will give Johannesburg Water far more flexibility in responding to any threats to its project”.

OPERATION GCIN’AMANZI MUST BE STOPPED! THE STRUGGLE FOR FREE WATER IS A STRUGGLE FOR LIFE!

It is Johannesburg Water and their Operation Gcin’amanzi who are the real criminals. The real motto of their campaign to commodify water should be - ‘No Money, No Water, No life’. The simple fact is that the privatisation of water through the installation of pre-paid water meters will mean that poor people unable to afford access will die. That is exactly what happened in Kwa-Zulu Natal in 2001 when over 200 people died of cholera after having been forced to drink water from polluted streams due to Umgeni Water Board charging the poor residents of Ngwelezane for water provision.

Pre-paid water meters must be declared illegal – they are the practical means being used to violate fundamental human rights to water. In the United Kingdom, the High Court declared pre-paid water meters unlawful in 1998. The new law in the UK takes away water companies' powers to disconnect water supply for non-payment, or to limit the supply with the intention of enforcing payment. How much more do we need such a law in South Africa where over 60% of the population lives in poverty? Are we simply to stand-by and watch as greedy privatised corporations like Johannesburg Water go about denying water to poor communities simply because they think they can get away with it? Johannesburg Water will not get away with its arrogance and lies. Besides ongoing struggles on the ground that will not stop, the SECC/ APF is presently seeking legal advice on challenging the interdict and pursuing a constitutional court challenge to the legality of pre-paid water meters.

The community of Phiri, along with the SECC and the APF, are taking up the struggle against pre-paid water meters because it is every South African’s (and human being’s) right to have water. We cannot and will not accept that it is only those who can afford privatised water who can enjoy that right. We call on the residents of SOWETO as well as people from poor communities across the country to rise up and say enough is enough!

PHANSI OPERATION GCIN’AMANZI!
WATER IS A HUMAN RIGHT, NOT A PRIVILEGE!

For further information contact:
Phiri Community – Veronica on 084 885-9187
APF - Dale McKinley on 072 429-4086
SECC - Trevor Ngwane on 083 293 7691