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Nelson Mandela Bay ‘water racism’ — a pandemic for poor and working-class residents

Siyabulela Mama and Antony Martel
By Siyabulela Mama and Antony Martel
16 Jul 2023
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The privatisation of basic services in South Africa has culminated in what the Nelson Mandela Bay Water Crisis Committee calls ‘water racism’. As the municipality prioritises ‘consumers’ who can pay for basic services, they cater to the needs of the wealthy and neglect the poor.

Earlier this year, a report revealed that South African residents owe more than R300-billion to their municipalities. In this report, residents are called “consumers”, which points to the position of the working class in this country. Instead of the working class receiving public goods, they are offered commodities they cannot afford. Our municipalities operate as businesses rather than public institutions, selling basic services to residents.

In 2018, Stats SA released a report that municipalities are deep in debt. Creditors to municipalities are registered suppliers and service providers such as Eskom and the water boards, which contributed 43% of the total municipal debt in 2016/17. The only way municipalities can service this debt is through revenue raised from residents. Public institutions are gutted, industries exercise great influence, and the working class has no power.

The privatisation of basic services in South Africa culminates in what the Nelson Mandela Bay Water Crisis Committee calls “water racism”. As the municipality prioritises “consumers” who can pay for basic services, it caters to the needs of the wealthy and neglects the poor. This explains the divisions in the distribution of water services between middle-class suburbs and working-class townships during the current water crisis in Nelson Mandela Bay (NMB).

On top of this neglect, working-class people are reminded of their shameful place in society when they are forced to prove how poor they are to qualify for the “indigent grant” (for access to free basic municipal services).

Many Nelson Mandela Bay residents are depressed and anxious as they struggle with the triad of unemployment, poverty and inequality.

Nelson Mandela Bay has 40% unemployment, which is a conservative statistic based on the limited definition of official unemployment. Of course, 70% of the unemployed in this city are young people. For those who are employed, it is precarious, with many contracts lasting only three to six months.

In 2022, it was reported that between April and September, 10 children died and 108 were hospitalised with severe acute malnutrition in Nelson Mandela Bay.

Residents must worry about inflated water bills and the inevitable prospect that their water and electricity may be cut as punishment for non-payment.

The story of the Chris Hani community


Last year, Chris Hani, a community in Uitenhage, did not have water for more than seven months. Regardless of their being waterless for half of last year, they continued to receive monthly bills each month that were as high as R25,000.

When the NMB Water Crisis Committee questioned the municipality about the billing issue in Chris Hani, the municipality explained that water meters in houses work with pressure. When there is air pressure in the system but no water, the meter will register as if water is still coming through the system. After giving this explanation, the municipality promised to solve this problem and to scrap the erroneous bills. 

It has still not done so.

The billing issue in Chris Hani has been replicated in many households across Nelson Mandela Bay.

In Bethelsdorp, some working-class and retired residents owe more than R300,000 from water bills alone. Not surprisingly, electricity is cut in such instances, which adds another layer of depression and anxiety.

Water consumption in Gqeberha’s industrial sector


While residents in townships surrounding Gqeberha’s industrial areas struggle with poor access to water and rising water-service debts, the city’s largest companies like Ford South Africa, Continental Tyre South Africa, Aspen Pharmaceutical, Volkswagen South Africa, Coca-Cola South Africa and Isuzu Motors South Africa operate unabated.

It is important to illustrate the scale of consumption in Gqeberha’s industrial sector to demonstrate the outsized influence businesses play in NMB’s water system.

Volkswagen’s Kariega plant claims it produces 680 cars per day. According to a study by the Georgia Institute of Technology, Volkswagen consumes roughly 5,010 litres per 1.19 vehicles in the assembly process. Using this measure, the Kariega plant consumes about 3,406,800 litres per day. This is only for the manufacturing of the vehicles and does not account for water that is used for sewage or tap water inside the factory.

VW Kariega is one example that can be extended across the largest enterprises operating in Gqeberha to demonstrate just how much water is prioritised for the city’s economic drivers.

This does not even count the 60% of the municipality’s water used by commercial farms, suburbs and golf courses. Whether it be suburban ratepayers’ associations, business chambers or playgrounds for the rich, such groups should not look at their contributions to NMB’s water system as charity. It is precisely because the working class does not have the power to demand what is rightfully theirs, that the wealthiest now see themselves as indispensable.

Big businesses receive tax breaks and subsidies to facilitate their role in attracting investment to the municipality but they do not match the extractive nature of their plunder. The unending pursuit of foreign direct investment results in working-class communities feeling the brunt of the extractive atrocities of such big companies.

This is why residents of Nelson Mandela Bay through the Water Crisis Committee are calling for universally free basic water services by making big companies and the rich pay for these services through a wealth tax.

We should look at the disaster that privatisation has wrought in the UK, where one of its largest private utilities is facing bankruptcy, to see the danger awaiting South Africa’s indebted municipalities, and their trajectory toward privatisation of basic services. DM/MC

Siyabulela Mama is a member of the Nelson Mandela Bay Water Crisis Committee and a researcher at the Centre for Integrated Post-School Education and Training at Nelson Mandela University. Tony Martel is a member of the NMB Water Crisis Committee and a PHD candidate at the Department of Development Studies, Nelson Mandela University.

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