PODCAST IDEAS " DEMOCRACY'S INFRASTUCTURE

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 What  I have found most interesting in my book is how operation 'Gcina amanzi' Zulu for operation save water became such a controversial initiative that people in Soweto opposed it for so many reasons. Rent Boycotts and they ended up duging out pipes as a counter campaign that activists called 'Operation Vul'amanzi' (Zulu for ' let the water flow)'.  The question that I will like to focus on is how did an infrastructure upgrading project become the subject of such passionate protests?

Today, in the post apartheid South Africa we have a number of protests and they all came in to being because of one protest against prototypes in Soweto, against water meters. The book subsequently follows the prepaid meter into the post apartheid era to examine its role in recurrent service delivery protests, as well as to consider what it reveals about the history of neoliberal policies in South Africa more generally. 

The book further explains the rent boycotts that began in Soweto in 1986, when township residents refused to pay rent for certain utilities. Many believed that the government has rolled out prepaid technology to help the community excess water but community activists and residence have instead read these administrative technologies as new forms of racism that disproportionately affect poor black residents, the marginalized. For South Africa, neoliberalism has meant the decentralization of basic services and the normalization of debt as a way of life.

Moreover, for the installation of the water meters the France engineers from the Suez Group team were used as experts. Why them? why were they the only experts assigned to the project of this magnitude ? Also the Phiri community in Soweto was used as an experimental site. Why was that certain area where most poor blacks resided used? why was the project not implemented in areas occupied by whites? 

Hello, hi my name is Lerato Priscilla Sauhatsi. Had done my undergrad at the UP majoring in Psychology and Sociology, currently doing my BSoc Science at UCT. I am a mental health advocate and part time exercise content creator. I am currently doing my masters at Wits. and I am an academic tutor.

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