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South Africa: Jo'burg Ponders Court Ruling Against Prepaid Water Meters
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Business Day (Johannesburg)
5 May 2008
Posted to the web 5 May 2008
Ernest Mabuza and Franny Rabkin
Johannesburg
THE city of Johannesburg will take legal advice on whether to appeal against Judge Moroa Tsoka's finding that the forced installation of prepaid water meters in Phiri, Soweto, was unconstitutional.
Tsoka, in a landmark judgment, ordered that Phiri residents be supplied with 50l of free basic water per person a day, up from the current 25l , and that they be given a choice of an ordinary credit water meter.
Virgil James, spokesman for the City of Johannesburg, said the problem for the city had been the large amount water that was un accounted for.
This was acknowledged in Tsoka's judgment. Before the prepaid water meters were installed, Soweto residents had unlimited access to water at a flat rate. People in the affluent suburbs had metered water, with a monthly bill.
The flat rate was not sustainable, as it resulted in an inability to account for "about 75% of all water pumped into Soweto," the judgment said.
The city had therefore introduced Operation Gcin'amanzi, which gave all households 6kl of free water a month. The rest had to be paid for. Where the free water was not enough, the city argued in court, there were systems in place where poor people could apply for more free water.
Tsoka said it was inexplicable that some residents of the city were entitled to water on credit, plus the free allocation of 6kl a household per month, while the people of Phiri were denied water on credit.
"In spite of the fact that they are poor, they are expected to pay for water before usage. Their counterparts, who are affluent and mainly rich and in white areas, irrespective of how much water they use, are entitled to water on credit. The differentiation, in my view, contravenes the right to equality."
James said they had installed pre paid meters in areas where there was "a culture of nonpayment", but that this was not a punitive measure.
Tsoka said the underlying basis for the introduction of prepayment meters seemed to be credit control.
"If this is true, I am unable to understand why this credit control measure is only suitable in the historically poor black areas and not the historically rich white areas. Bad payers cannot be described in terms of colour or geographical areas. Bad debt is a human problem, not a racial problem."
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Residents of Phiri and members of the Coalition Against Water Privatisation celebrated outside court after judgment was handed down.
Patra Sindane of the coalition said: "Justice has been done." The judgment "respected the people; this judgment is a victory for the working class, for all residents of SA".
James said that depending on legal advice, the city might appeal against the judgment, but in the meantime, delivery of services would continue.
There is no free lunch,some body will have to pay and I think I know who.
Re: your basic right to water I would like to hear what the San/people of the Khalahri think of this,is a section of the population being placed in a position where in a decade its way of life will cease to exist.Is this being done in the name of averagism.It brings a tear to my eye as all my life I have admired them greatly only to find the good things being done for them will in fact cause them to cease being. As the world says killing them with kindness.
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