Even though the provision of good quality basic services to everyone was one of the main strategies identified to address the legacies of apartheid in democratic South Africa, it seems that nowadays this sector, and in particular water services, are still characterized by many failures and tensions. Indeed, one of the major contradictions that have emerged during the last few years refers to the presence of a human rights framework, embedded in the constitutional right to water and in the Free Basic Water Policy of 2001, which is challenged by the adoption of neoliberal policies. This work will adopt a political economy perspective to explore the tensions between content and operationalization of the right to water in South Africa. It will demonstrate that neoliberalism has led to a very narrow and exclusive realization of the right to water and that inequality levels remain very high within the country, although South Africa does have the financial resources to actually provide the same level of services to everyone. The paper will also argue that neoliberal policies within the water sector have severely affected the residents of historically poor and black areas and that the market ideology promoted by those same policies has offered a strong justification for the persistence of inequality within the country. Finally, this research will identify a serious lack of accountability as one of the major factors responsible for the failures within the realization of the right to water in South Africa.

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Tankha, Sunil
hdl.handle.net/2105/6622
International Political Economy and Development (IPED)
International Institute of Social Studies

Marcatelli, Michela. (2009, January). A political economy perspective on the right to water in South Africa. International Political Economy and Development (IPED). Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/2105/6622