Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Social Control and Social Welfare under Neoliberalism in South African Cities: Contradictions in Free Basic Water Services

  • Chapter
Cities in Contemporary Africa

Abstract

Urban services have been a central concern in recent writings about the future of Africa’s fast growing city populations (Davis 2004; UN 2003). Among the sub-Saharan Africa population, only 24 percent have in-house water; 36 percent have no access to safe water; only 5 percent have access to the electricity network. There is a common misconception that water access is not as much an urban issue but primarily a rural one. Yet, using an expanded definition of “lack of access” up to 50 percent of the urban population lack adequate water supplies, and 60 percent lack adequate sanitation (UN 2003). Contrary to official statistics, sub-Saharan Africa’s urban population probably has the world’s worst provision of water and sanitation services. In Accra, in early 1990, only 35 percent had piped water in their houses, and in Addis Ababa, 30 percent used open fields as toilets. Half of Nairobi’s three million residents access water from standpipe vendors; 70 percent are not connected to the city’s network.1 In recent times, South Africa has served as a model for Africa. More advanced in physical and social infrastructure than most on the continent, South Africa’s state-funded provision of infrastructure, and since 2001, free basic services, have mitigated the absolute forms of service inequalities. The ANC government has pioneered new techniques of service delivery linked to managing resources and people.

The organization of social relations demands mapping so that people know their place … the power to map the world in one way or another is a crucial tool in political struggles.

(Harvey 1996: 112)

The party leaders behave like common sergeant majors, frequently reminding the people of the need for “silence in the ranks.” This party that used to call itself the servant of the people’s will, as soon as the colonial power puts the country into its control, hastens to send the people back to their caves.

(Fanon 1967: 183)

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 84.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Bibliography

  • Arthur, C. 1978. “Introduction to Pashukanis,” in E. Pashukanis (ed.). Law and Marxism. London: Ink Links, pp. 9–32.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bagguley, P. 1994. “Prisoners of the Beveridge Dream? The Political Mobilization of the Poor against Contemporary Welfare Regimes,” in R. Burrows and B. Loader (eds.). Towards a Post-Fordist Welfare State? London: Routledge, pp. 74–93.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bauman, D., J. Boland, M. Hanemann. 1998. Urban Water Demand Management. New York: McGraw Hill.

    Google Scholar 

  • Beall, J., Crankshaw, O., and S. Parnell, 2000. “Local Government, Poverty Reduction and Inequality in Johannesburg,” Environment and Urbanization 12 (1): 107–122.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bond, P., 2002. Unsustainable South Africa. London: Merl in Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Christopher, A. J. 2005. “The Slow Pace of Desegregation in South African Cities, 1996–2001,” Urban Studies 42 (12): 2305–2320.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Clarke, J. and J. Newman. 1997. The Managerial State. London: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dandeker, C., 1990. Surveillance, Power and Modernity. Oxford: Polity Press,.

    Google Scholar 

  • Davis, M. 2004. “Planet of Slums,” New Left Review [NS] 26 (March–April): 5–34.

    Google Scholar 

  • Deakin, N. and K. Walsh. 1996. “The Enabling State: The Role of Markets and Contracts,” Public Administration 74: 33–48.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dean, H. 1991. Social Security and Social Control. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Desai, A. 2002. We are the Poors. New York: Monthly Review Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Development Bank of South Africa, 2001. The Role of Prepayment Water Meters for Sustainable Delivery of Water Services, Discussion Document. Midrand.

    Google Scholar 

  • DoF (Department of Finance). 2001. Intergovernmental Fiscal Review 2001. Pretoria.

    Google Scholar 

  • DoF (Department of Finance). 2003. Intergovernmental Fiscal Review 2003. Pretoria.

    Google Scholar 

  • DPLG. 2002. Quarterly Monitoring of Municipal Finances and Related Activities, Summary of Questionnaires for Quarter Ended, 31 December.

    Google Scholar 

  • DPSA (Department of Public Services and Administration). 1997. Batho Pele. Pretoria.

    Google Scholar 

  • DWAF (Department of Water and Forestry). 2000. Kasrils statement on logic of Durban.

    Google Scholar 

  • DWAF (Department of Water and Forestry). 2003. Strategic Framework for Water Services. Pretoria.

    Google Scholar 

  • DWAF (Department of Water and Forestry). 2001. Free Basic Water Implementation Strategy. Case Study: Durban Unicity. Prepared by Palmer Development Group <http://www.DWAF.gov.za/FreeBasicWater/Docs/casestud/>.

  • Elster, J. 1988. “Should there Be a Right to Work?” in A. Gutman (ed.). Democracy and Welfare State. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Esping-Anderson, G. 1990. Three Worlds of Welfare. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • eThekwini. 2004. Water Services Developmet Plan, Vol 2 <http://www.durban.gov.za/eThekwini/Services/water_and_sanitation/policies_and_guidelines/WSDP/>.

  • Fanon, F, 1967. The Wretched of the Earth. Middlesex: Penguin.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ferguson, J. 1990. The Anti-Politics Machine: “Development,” Depoliticization, and Bureaucratic Power in Lesotho. Cape Town: David Phillip.

    Google Scholar 

  • Forrest, R. 1991. “The Privatization of Collective Consumption,” in M. Gottdiener (ed.), Urban Life in Transition. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, pp. 169–195.

    Google Scholar 

  • Foucault, M., 1995. Discipline and Punish. New York: Vintage Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Greenburg, S. 2005. “The Rise and Fall of Water Privatisation in Rural South Africa,” in D. McDonald and G. Ruiters (eds.). The Age of Commodity. Water Privatization in Southern Africa. London: Earthscan, pp. 206–222.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gill, S. 2003. Power and Resistance in the New World Order. New York: Palgrave.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hart, G. 2005. “Beyond Neoliberalism? Post-Apartheid Developments in Historical and Comparative Perspective,” in V. Padayachee (ed.). The Development Decade? Social and Economic Change in South Africa 1994–2004. Pretoria: HSRC, pp. 13–32.

    Google Scholar 

  • Harvey, D. 1996. Justice, Nature and the Geography of Difference. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.

    Google Scholar 

  • Harvey, D. 2005. A Brief History of Neoliberalism. London: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hemson, D. and Owusu-Ampomah. 2005. “A Better Life for All? Service Delivery and Poverty Alleviation,” in J. Daniel, R. Southall, and J. Lutchman (eds.). State of the Nation 2004–2005. South Africa: Human Sciences Research Council Press, pp. 515–516.

    Google Scholar 

  • Imiesa. 2000. “Prepayment Meters: The Way of the Future,” editorial 25 (9).

    Google Scholar 

  • Jega, A. 2000. State and Identity Transformations under Structural Adjustment in Nigeria. Uppsala: Nordiska Afrikaininstitutet.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jessop, B., 2002. “Liberalism, Neoliberalism, and Urban Governance: A State-Theoretic Perspective,” Antipode 34 (3): 451–472.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Johnannesburg Metro. 2001. City Development Plan 2001/2002 <www.johannesburgnews.co.za/budget_2001/develop_plan.html>.

  • Kasrills. 2003. www.dwaf.gov.za/Communications/PressReleases/2003/Prepaid%20right%20to%20water%20campaign%20reply1_.doc [accessed August 6, 2004].

  • Kerf, M. and W. Smith. 1996. Privatising Africa’s Infrastructure: Promise and Challenge. World Bank Technical Paper No 337. Washington, DC.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • LaRRI. 2005. “Water Privatization in Namibia: Creating a New apartheid,” in D. McDonald and G. Ruiters (eds.), The age of Commodity, Water Privatization in Southern Africa. London: Earthscan, pp. 148–165.

    Google Scholar 

  • Laurence, P. 2004. “Albatrosses Hanging around Mbeki’s Neck,” Focus 34.

    Google Scholar 

  • Loftus, A., 2005. “Free Water as a Commodity: The Paradoxes of Durban’s Water Services Transformation,” in D. McDonald and G. Ruiters (eds.). The Age of Commodity, Water Privatization in Southern Africa. London: Earthscan, pp. 189–203.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lorrain, D. and G. Stoker. 1997. The Privatisation of Urban Services in Europe. London: Pinter.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mamdani. M. 1996. Citizen and Subject. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mbeki, T. 2004. The ANC Today 4 (7) (February): 20–26.

    Google Scholar 

  • McDonald, D. and J. Pape. 2002. Cost Recovery and the Crisis of Service Delivery in South Africa. Cape Town: HSRC Publishers.

    Google Scholar 

  • McDonald, D. and G. Ruiters. 2005. The Age of Commodity. Water Privatization in Southern Africa. London: Earthscan.

    Google Scholar 

  • McGibbbon, H. 2002. “Prepaid Vending Lessons Learnt by Eskom.” Updea Conference, June.

    Google Scholar 

  • McInnes, P. 2005. “Entrenching Inequalities: The Impact of Corporatization on Water Injustices in Pretoria,” in D. McDonald and G. Ruiters (eds.). The Age of Commodity, Water Privatization in Southern Africa. London: Earthscan, pp. 99–117.

    Google Scholar 

  • Meszaros, I. 1995. Beyond Capital. New York: Monthly Review Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Migdal, J. 2001. State in Society: Studying How States and Societies Transform and Constitute one Another. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Muller, M. 2001. “Free Basic Water, Challenge, Sustaining Free Basic Water,” Water, Sewage and Effluent 21 (4): 14.

    Google Scholar 

  • Muller, M. 2003. “Presentation to Bonn Water Conference, December 2003” <www.dwaf.gov.za>.

    Google Scholar 

  • Murray, M. 2004. “The Spatial Dynamics of Postmodern Urbanism: Social Polarisation and Fragmentation in São Paulo and Johannesburg,” Journal of Contemporary African Studies 22 (2): 139–164.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Offe, C. 1983. Contradictions of the Welfare State. London: Hutchinson.

    Google Scholar 

  • Olukoju, A. 2004. “Never Expect Power Always: Electricity Consumers’ Response to Monopoly, Corruption and Inefficient Services in Nigeria,” African Affairs 103: 51–71.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Osaghae, E. 2001. “Exiting from the Existing State in Nigeria,” in S. Bekker, M. Dodds, and M. Khosa (eds.). Shifting African Identities. Pretoria: HSRC, pp. 21–42.

    Google Scholar 

  • Painter, J. 1995. Politics, Geography and Political Geography. London: Arnold.

    Google Scholar 

  • Palmer Development Group. 2001. “Free Basic Water: Tswane.” A case study prepared for DWAF <http://www.DWAF.gov.za/FreeBasicWater/Docs/casestud/>.

    Google Scholar 

  • Peck, J and A. Tickell 2002. “Neoliberalising Space,” Antipode 34 (3): 380–404.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Piven, F and F. Cloward. 1977. Poor People’s Movements, How They Succeed and How They Fail. New York: Pantheon.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ruiters, G. 2002. “Debt, Disconnection and Privatisation,” in D. McDonald and J. Pape (eds.). Cost Recovery and the Crisis of Service Delivery in South Africa. Cape Town: HSRC Publishers, pp. 41–60.

    Google Scholar 

  • Scott, J. 1998. Seeing like a State. New Haven: Yale University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Smith, L. and Fakir, E. 2003. “The Struggle to Deliver Water Services to the Indigent: A Case Study on the Public-Public Partnership in Harrismith with Rand Water.” Centre for Policy Studies, Johannesburg.

    Google Scholar 

  • Smith, N. 2002. “New Globalism, New Urbanism and Genrificationas Global urban Strategey.” Antipode 34 (3): 427–450.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • South Africa Cities Network. 2004, State of the Cities Report. South African Cities Network, Johannesburg.

    Google Scholar 

  • Still, A. 2001. “Free Basic Water, Who Pains, Who Gains,” Water, Sewage and Effluent 21 (4): 17.

    Google Scholar 

  • Taylor-Gooby, P. 2000. Risk, Trust and Welfare. Houndsmill: Macmillan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tewari, D. and T. Shah. 2003. “An Assessment of South African Prepaid Electricity Experiment, Lessons Learned, and Their Policy Implications for Developing Countries,” Energy Policy (31): 911–927.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • United Nations (UN). 2003. World Water Development Report. New York.

    Google Scholar 

  • United Nations (UN). 2004. Water for People, Water for Life. New York. <http:www.un.org/esa/sustdev/publications/WWDR-english-129556e.pdf>.

  • United Nations Human Settlements Program. 2003. Water and Sanitation in the World’s Cities. London: Earthscan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Walker, C. 1993. Managing Poverty, the Limits of Social Assistance. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Water and Sanitation Services South Africa. 1995. The Delegated Management Concept. Annexure 5, Fort Beaufort Proposal, April. Fort Beaufort Municipality.

    Google Scholar 

  • Water Research Commission (WRC). 2003. Institutional and Socioeconomic Review of the Use/Application of Electronic Pre-paid Meter Technology in the Provision of Water Supply Services, Project No. K5/1206/0/1. Johannesburg.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wolch, J. and M. Dear (eds.). 1989. The Power of Geography. Boston: Unw in Hyman.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Authors
  1. Greg Ruiters
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Editor information

Martin J. Murray Garth A. Myers

Copyright information

© 2006 Martin J. Murray and Garth A. Myers

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Ruiters, G. (2006). Social Control and Social Welfare under Neoliberalism in South African Cities: Contradictions in Free Basic Water Services. In: Murray, M.J., Myers, G.A. (eds) Cities in Contemporary Africa. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230603349_14

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation