Can Human Rights Transcend the Commercialization of Water in South Africa? Soweto’s Legal Fight for an Equitable Water Policy

Jackie Dugard
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Jackie Dugard: University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, SOUTH AFRICA, jackie.dugard@wits.ac.za

Review of Radical Political Economics, 2010, vol. 42, issue 2, 175-194

Abstract: The South African Constitution guarantees the right to water, which is reinforced by a national Free Basic Water policy. However, water delivery is a local government function, which, in the absence of a national regulator, is largely operated as a commercial service. Using the lens of the Mazibuko water rights case—the first South African test case on the right to water—this article examines the conflict between a progressive rights-based model, which views water as a social good, and the commercialized model, which treats water as a source of revenue instead of a public service. The article finds in the legal iterations of the Mazibuko applicants the potential for a new, more equitable approach to water services. This is despite the set-back occasioned by the ultimate legal defeat in the Constitutional Court in late-2009. JEL codes: I31, H41, K32, Q25

Keywords: right to water; social good; commercialization; water services; South Africa (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2010
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:reorpe:v:42:y:2010:i:2:p:175-194

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