On 3rd October last, hundreds of residents from Orange Farm, a township about sixty km south of Johannesburg, blocked the major access road to the capital in order to make their point. Armed with slogans such as “No peace without development” or “No liberty without access to basic services”, they barred the highway for several hours to force the government to keep its promises. As part of OWCC [1], a community association formed to combat privatisation of municipal water service supplying Orange Farm, the inhabitants are calling for access to running water, electricity, housing and decent health services for all.

Politicians had promised “a better life for all”, with access to basic services for disadvantaged communities. But a public service privatisation strategy has been adopted. This has had a disastrous impact on poor populations. Between 1994 and 2004, over 12 million people have had their running water cut off, as they were unable to pay the spiralling price increases that have reached over 600% in some municipalities. Similarly, more than 10 million people have been deprived of electricity as they have not been able to pay the bills. The scenario is the same for social housing. Construction and financing of low cost housing have been privatised and are now handled by the five main banks in the country. This leads to hundreds of evictions across the country each week because of unpaid mortgages.

	Demonstration of the anti-privatisation Forum in South Africa

In the face of this critical situation, the residents of Orange Farm decided to mobilise themselves. After many months of meetings, they decided that it was time to act! Last September, the population blocked the Golden Highway for over 12 hours. As a result of this action, the mayor and the local councillors were obliged to start negotiations. However, after a few weeks, there were no concrete proposals and the local councillors continued to heap the responsibility on the private companies. For Bricks Mokolo, president of the OWCC, this situation is not acceptable and he does not hesitate to declare: “as long as our voices are not heard and our problems not addressed, we will return there to say that there will be no peace without development.” Once again, the residents exploded with anger and they went back to block the highway. Some of them were injured by the police; others spent the night in jail, but no one gave up the struggle.

In the end, this widespread mobilisation has resulted in a meeting between the different parties involved, the municipality, the private companies, and the citizens’ organizations. A victory for the inhabitants of Orange Farm who are all the more motivated because they are not alone in their struggle. Throughout South Africa, there are individual or collective initiatives in the struggle against privatisation. These initiatives are gathered under a national banner called The Anti privatisation Forum which the OWCC is part of. For few years now, we have been able to observe a multiplication of popular movements in the country. As Mzimazi Mngeni, from the association ILRIG, explains, “the emergence of these social movements is a sign of a deep frustration and a continuing increase in the level of anger from the oppressed people of our country. These new movements represent a spark of a revival and the beginning of a regrouping of the working class in South Africa.”

FDH

Notes :

[1] OWCC : Orange Farm Water Crisis Committee