The article discusses the Gauteng Water Crisis and criticizes a social media post by Ferial Haffajee that questioned the qualifications of Rand Water Board members. The author highlights the importance of active citizenship and questioning authority, drawing parallels between the water crisis and broader societal issues.
In the early part, I finished reading William Henry Vatcher’s and in the latter part, I traveled through four provinces chatting to some privileged and some ordinary individuals and communities in different areas in the country and seeking to understand whether they feel liberated, 30 years later.
The board has two civil engineers who I am sure can advise on issues like drainage, water supply and sewer services; it has a microbiologist as a CEO, and I cannot think of any better professional to tell me whether I can drink my water’; it has a lawyer for obvious reasons. It also has finance people and perhaps this is the reason why, although State Owned Enterprises are not actually designed to make a profit but to service the public, Rand Water has never been bailed out by government.
History also shows us that where certain parts of SOEs have been privatised, it has not befitted us as it should but has just benefitted the wallets of private companies. Eskom comes to mind. On the same day that Ms. Haffajee posted, WaterCAN, a network of citizen science activists did a site visit to Eikenhof in response to Rand Water’s announcement that service would be interrupted for maintenance. After the visit, WaterCAN and other civil society groups which consisted of three professional engineers stated in part:
Water Crisis Rand Water Qualifications Journalism Active Citizenship
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