Privatisation comes under attack

By Mutuna Chanda, Gabriel Maliwa and Vitima Ndovi
Orange Farm, a South African community has stood forthright against the privatisation of water services, sabotaging the prepaid water meters and getting free water instead.
This, according to forum delegates is one of the models that the Southern African community could possibly pick and implement in their respective countries to create a people friendly region.
In the debt and trade cluster of the ongoing southern Africa social forum in Malawi’s capital Lilongwe, South Africa’s Gladys Mokolo told of a practice to stop the pre-paid system of access to water that South Africans in her area have taken.
“We have destroyed the prepaid water meters and are getting free water and this is what is happening in Orange farm,” she said. “When the pre-paid water system was in effect one man and two of his children who had moved to Orange farm in South Africa from Zimbabwe burnt to ashes in their house because people in the neighbourhood were not ready to sacrifice their water to put out the fire”.
And Zambia’s Priscilla Mpundu said because of the privatisation policies people’s rights are being abused.
“How can you live without water because you can’t afford it, when water is a right?” she asked.
She said resulting from the privatisation of even energy services, people in urban areas are living without electricity and have instead resorted to cutting trees for use as an energy source.
Reverend Solomon Mabuza of Ujamaa Centre at the University of Kwazulu Natal complained of how heavily the neo liberal policies that are bringing paying for services are weighing on people.
He said: “in the past our leaders used to tell us not to pay for these services because they were fighting against apartheid but now we have to pay for them”.
“In the suburbs then you could even keep seven dogs but now you can’t afford it because you have to licence the dogs” he added.
Enddy Ziyera a Zimbabwean said most people in Zimbabwe are facing problems of water borne diseases because they cannot afford to pay high bills of water and this has negative impact for the both rural and urban community.
Privatisation, says Ziyera, has created the gap between the poor and the rich in Zimbabwe and urged southern Africa members through the SASF to come up with strategies on how to lobby leaders to stop privatisation of water and all other entities in Africa.
Nedi Kamba, a Malawian young man feels privatization in Malawi has had very negative impact to Malawian because only a few people have benefited from it hence creating a gap between the poor and the rich.
“Water should not be privatised, water is our basic need there is no logic for leaders in the region to privatise the basic need for well being of human beings,” he concluded.