South Africans strike against privatisation

South Africans strike against privatisation

By Norm Dixon

Thousands of workers employed by local government in Johannesburg and Pretoria staged a one-day strike on July 1 to oppose privatisation. The strike was called by the South African Municipal Workers Union.

"Strategic, basic services need to remain in state hands", SAMWU assistant general secretary Mncedisi Nontsele told a mass rally in central Johannesburg. "The biggest disaster will occur when the private sector takes over."

SAMWU is collecting 1 million signatures against privatisation, to be presented to the ANC government on August 1.

SAMWU argues that public services must be upgraded and that in order to increase efficiency, workers must be paid well and their conditions improved. International experience has shown that privatised public services result in lower wages and worse conditions for workers while consumers suffer poorer services and higher charges.

Municipal services have become the front line in the battle against privatisation. The Nelspuit local council in Mpumalanga province intends to privatise water and sanitation services. In Northern Cape province, local authorities are to privatise security departments, while in the Eastern Cape, rubbish collection is to be sold off.

Klerksdorp in North West Province has already privatised water and waste departments, and road services and sewerage disposal have been partly privatised.

SAMWU also points out that privatisation encourages corruption. In several instances, the union reports, council managers have left their jobs to set up their own private operations to benefit from council sell-offs.

From GLW issue 282