[Marxism] IPS: Country Welcomes Cuban Doctors

[Bill Quimby]

Would some comrade have the time to post some - possibly web -
links to this struggle? Maybe I have just missed any mention of this
on the two or three lists and news sources I check, but anyway...
I'd like to know more.

Does anyone recall a New Yorker article a while ago (ten years ago?)
about a similar effort to privatise water in a Latin (Central?) American
country (with Bechtel I believe as the contractor) and how the public
rose to defeat it.? As I recall the government stated that it was only trying
to guarantee clean, safe, water supplies for all. That this "all" could not
afford the clean, safe water did not seem to be a government concern.

- Bill


Patrick Bond wrote:
> Actually Louis and Walter, those counterrevolutionary bastards who bash SA
> *have* found another devious way to embarrass the government, as you see
> below... (and one paid with his life on May Day).
> 
> Louis Proyect wrote:
>> Walter wrote:
>>> ... Evidently the South Africa bashers have found yet another way to bash
>>> South Africa's post-apartheid government.
>>> 
>> Walter, as I told you the other day, privatizing water in South Africa has
>> resulted in the death of thousands of children from cholera, dysentery and
>> other such diseases. Any government that allows children to die in this
>> fashion while erstwhile Black revolutionaries join the white capitalist
>> club should not be praised. It should be condemned.
>> 
> 
> 
> Sunday Independent
> 
> City council's township water-meter plans get flushed by high court judge
> 
> May 04, 2008 Edition 1
> 
> Maureen Isaacson
> 
> A historic judgment has consigned prepaid water meters to the dustbin of 
> history. It has also highlighted the attitude of the City of Johannesburg to
> the plight of the majority of poor, uneducated, sick and HIV/Aids-ravaged
> residents of Phiri township, Soweto.
> 
> The Johannesburg High Court has declared prepaid water meters unlawful and
> unconstitutional. Five poor residents of Phiri, who have been in dispute with
> the city for the past four years on behalf of themselves and their community,
> have won the battle for their constitutional right to free water. The
> application was heard over three days in December.
> 
> Judge MP Tsoka ordered the City of Johannesburg to provide a full range of
> water-delivery options. The limitation of free basic water to the present 6
> kilolitres per household per month was set aside by the court, and the City
> of Johannesburg and Johannesburg Water were ordered to supply Phiri residents
> with 50 litres per person per day.
> 
> Judge Tsoka said: "Twenty-five litres per person per day is insufficient for
> the residents of Phiri. � to expect the applicants to restrict their water
> usage, to compromise their health, by limiting the number of toilet flushes
> in order to save water, is to deny them the rights to health and to lead a
> dignified lifestyle."
> 
> He found that the consultation leading to the adoption of prepaid meters was
> inadequate and was "more of a publicity stunt than a consultation".
> 
> Tsoka said that it was the obligation of the city "to ensure that every 
> person had both physical and economic access to water".
> 
> He said that the introduction of the prepaid meters was procedurally unfair.
> The judgment said that the by-laws, "other than as a penalty, do not
> authorise the installation of prepayment meters".
> 
> The judge said that in "established democracies, prepaid water meters are
> illegal as they violate the procedural requirement of fairness by cutting off
> or discontinuing the supply of water without notice and representation.
> 
> The policies ostensibly adopted to alleviate the plight of the poor in Phiri
> "appear irrational and unreasonable as they are inflexible".
> 
> The underlying objective of the policies is to encourage the installation of
> prepayment meters, which are unlawful. Also, the policies are discriminatory
> because they differentiate between the allowances of those who live in
> historically poor black areas and historically richer white areas, said the
> judge.
> 
> While some residents in the previously privileged areas are entitled to water
> on credit, as well as the free allocation of 6 kilolitres per household per
> month, the Phiri residents are expected to pay for water before it is used.
> This contravenes the right to equality laid out in the constitution.
> 
> Tsoka said the argument that the poor Phiri residents would be otherwise 
> unable to use water and that the system was "good for them" was patronising.
> He reminded the court that discrimination based on colour was unlawful.
> 
> "Bad payers cannot be described in terms of colour or geographical areas. Bad
> debt is a human problem, not a racial problem," he said.
> 
> Moreover, the system of prepaid meters discriminated unfairly against women,
> he said. The majority of poor black households, such as those of the Phiri
> applicants, were headed by women. One of the Phiri applicants had to walk
> 30km to fetch water.
> 
> To deny the applicants the right to water would perpetuate the decades-long
> poverty, deprivation, want and undignified existence of the recent past.
> 
> Dale McKinley, a spokesman for the Coalition Against Water Privatisation,
> said: "The city has egg on its face and is saddled with a R320 million loan
> for prepaid meters that it now can't install.
> 
> "If the city had followed the writ of the law in implementing its water 
> services, consulted the community and listened to the voices of protest, this
> would not be the case."
> 
> ***
> 
> Coalition Against Water Privatisation Press Statement -1st May 2008
> 
> Last seen alive being arrested by Sebokeng police, the death of cde Mathafeni
> is their responsibility
> 
> Mathafeni's lifeless body was found this morning in some bushes in Sebokeng
> Zone 20. He was a community activist involved with the Sebokeng Ward 2
> Concerned Residents that on Tuesday blockaded the Golden Highway to demand
> that the government respond to their memorandum, which was submitted on the
> 10th of March. Police arrested Mathefeni on Tuesday and beat him so badly
> with batons that he had to see a doctor on his release on Wednesday morning.
> He was re-arrested later in the evening � and last seen alive in the hands of
> the arresting officers.
> 
> Until an investigation proves otherwise, we, the members of the Coalition
> Against Water Privatisation, accuse the police of being responsible for
> Mathafeni's death. It is enough to know that Mathafeni was so badly beaten
> during his first detention that he required stitches - his re-arrest could
> only have been intended to continue meting out the punishment. The police
> have shown no compunction in resorting to live ammunition when dealing with
> Tuesday's protest. Death in detention is just another step up from the
> violence the police in Sebokeng have already shown themselves capable of.
> 
> Justice for comrade Mathafeni! Investigate the police for the death of cde
> Mathafeni!
> 
> For more information, contact the Coalition Against Water Privatisation 
> organizer, Patra Sindane @ 073 052 7005.
> 
> 
> 
> 
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