On Mvura/Amanzi/Water Disband the Harare City Council

 

By Takura Zhangazha*

You cannot even begin to believe it. The Harare  City Council is pursuing a prepaid metre plan for water access.  That is basically a privatisation of what is Earth's most abundandant and necessary natural resource. Whether its from the sky, our rivers, the oceans or underground. 

In our African tradition, if you have a visitor, the first thing you offer is a calabash of water. Its for free. No questions asked. Until your thirst is quenched. 

In this there is no pre-payment. It is just basic humanity. And if you need to go to do any ablutions, as a visitor, we do not stop you. Except to give you more water to wash your hands afterwards. 

But now the Harare City Council has under the directive of the central Ministry of Local government decided without any iorta of resistance, to put a prepaid price on water distribution in the capital.

Not just drinking water as was already the case. But all types of water usages. 

There are those that easily argue that water is a 'commodity' like bread, sugar or tea. 

The truth of the matter, as established by the Univrrsal Declaration Human Rights via the United Nations, article 3 without direct reference to water. 

Infact it is one of the most fundamental. 

No human being can live without water. Whether you drink it, wash with it or marvel at its spectacular river course from Mosi-oa-Tunya  to the Indian ocean. 

Water belongs to the people. How you pipe it, treat it, distribute it will should always be framed within the ambit of its equitable access for all. Rich, middle class, working class, rural farmer or the downright poor. 

I know a number of cdes who have a colonial hangover about water and its distribution in our cities in Zimbabwe. They have a very capitalist mindset about a resource that is essentially an equalizer.  Mainly because they have boreholes or can purchase  Nigeria style the same said water as a privilege. 

All the while ignoring the universal right to water for all human beings. And assuming they are priviledged because of, again, their access to water.

And then enter the Harare City Council. I know some of the councillors. Some I have known for years on end when they were opposition 'ground activists'. 

 In particular I also know the current mayor Jacob Mafume as a one time very close cde. 

In that time of knowing each other we would discuss issues of social and economic justice.

 While we never dwelt much on the issue of water and water rights of the people, we probably found it ridiculous that someone can make a proposition that water can be privatised. 

Now I have never been to remand prison as my brother Jacob Mafume on what it appears were politicised charges. Neither have I had to face a Commission of Inquiry about my conduct in office. 

But I have also never been at the forefront of as ridiculous a proposition as that of privatising water. Mvura, Amanzi? 

So when I opened the gate to where I currently stay, expecting macde eJehovahs Witness, lo and behold there were young cdes from a company called Helcrow. 

They advised me that they were there to install a pre-paid water metre. I didnt argue with them. They asked for my council rates/metre number.  I gave them. 

Then they proceeded to change the old one that they claimed was now digitalised. 

I told them but there is currently no water anyway. They said it did not matter. It will only matter when the water eventually comes. 

I understood the young cdes. They were at work. And they also warned me that if I refused to comply I would be fined. Or they would lose their jobs. 

I sort of get it. I have served in many boards or organisations both private and public. All in which I have faced multiple tricky situations. 

I remember one in which we had to debate a question of medical aid versus funeral insurance. The latter was cheaper. I refused and thankfully won the argument that we cannot employ people in order to bury them with a subsidy.

Water, as one of my close friends says, is not a rumour. It is a human right. It should never be privatised. When it rains, we are all happy because water belongs to all of us. And it was, will never be prepaid. (Tichasvitsana kuma penalty)

*Takura Zhangazha writes here in his personal capacity

Africa and the Immediate Threat of a Third Global World War (Israel-USA-Iran)

 Africa and the Immediate Threat of a Third Global World War (Israel-USA-Iran)

By Takura Zhangazha 

In another time I wish I did not have to write this article. 

But as an African, in Africa, it is necessary to do so in light of not only recent seismic global international events such as the USA/Israel military attacks on Iran. Wherein a 'nuclear option' is rumoured to be on the USA/Israel table.

But also the shifts in a long held assumption of global human equality under the auspices of the United Nations Charter and its one-time humane liberatory history.

Moreso with a clear return to a revived neo-imperialistic (also read as neo-colonial) mindset by the USA government of Donald Trump. And other western governments that under the auspices of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (Nato) are too afraid to challenge the USA due to their fear of what they consider a stronger China or a re-emergent and agressive Russia. 

With China being feared by the global west for its new global economic/technological influence and Russia for its war of agression in Ukraine. 

Our reality is that as Africans we all, even if we didnt directly will it on ourselves,  live in a capitalist globalised economy. In fact we have done so since the end of the then Cold War (1989-91) mainly between the West and the East (mainly Russia before the emergence of China as also a counter-hegemon). 

So because of this reality as Africans, we need to immediately grasp a couple of matters and put them out of the way. 

The first being the historical phrase that when the global north/west sneezes, the world catches a cold (I am paraphrasing for context here)

Or to put it more into a contemporary geopolitical context, when the global north/west superpowers start a war of invasion/regime-change against a mineral rich state,  the globalised neo-liberal economy always has dire consequences for poorer countries in the global south. 

The second issue to immediately understand is that the USA/Israel vs Iran current war is not between the three countries only. It encompases a less ideological return to the equivalent of a new 'Cold War' in 2026. One which is more neo-imperialist than ideological. 

By this I mean it is more about global contestations for economic, financial (US$ vs Gold) and material (minerals, territory, military hardware) dominance. 

It is a battle that, make no mistake, does not have Africa's deliberately conscious participation. It is one that pits the USA/Israel, NATO member states against Russia,China and the now evidently fragile remaining  BRICS member states. These being India, Brazil and our African representative, South Africa. 

So we, or at least our African governments should have a full appreciation of the full import of this current USA/Israel-Iran war on oil/gas, travel/tourism, commodity exchanges (especially minerals), military repositioning and by dint of all of the above their effects on their own domestic performance legitimacy politics. 

Some African governments may fall simply because of their over-reliance on trade routes via the Hormutz Strait. 

Or their over confidence in financialised capital that is based in the mainstream Gulf States that are no longer fully functional and under current lockdown due to Iranian attacks.

But the crux of this matter as alluded to in the title of this article is Africa's placement in this USA/Israel vs Iran war, now and in the immediate future. Before we even talk about its more long term effects. 

This war is without a doubt couched in a colonial and racist ideological  narrative as clearly laid out by US secretary of state Marco Rubio in a recent address at the Davos World Economic Forum where he publicly and shockingly (I think it was deliberate)  called for a re-assertion of Western civilisation. As of racist colonial superiority old with widespread uncritical coverage in globalised private mainstream and social media. 

So this current USA/Israel vs Iran war that is increasingly becoming global wants to return Africa to an oppressive fear mongering and inferiority complex consciousness. By way of simply demonstrating military might as is the case with Venezuela, Iran and now potentially Cuba. Wherein the West is saying/implying to Africa, forget your own struggles against colonialism, imperialism and neo-imperialism/neo-liberalism. Or face a military attack or violent ouster of a current leader and subsequent civil strife. 

What has however been problematic for us has been the responses of our Africa continental ( African Union ) and sub-regional bodies (SADC, ECOWAS, EAC, IGAD).

These have been characterised by an over pliant diplomatic language that indicates more acquiesence than resistance to this newfound, global racist western neo-imperialism. 

A development which after what happened to Libya, Sudan, Saharawi and the DRC among others, still leaves a tragic sour taste in any organic Pan Africanists' mouth. 

While we can argue about Russia and China's role in this current global Orwellian 'war' state of affairs, we can be assured that historically these two countries are not as racist toward Africa as the USA and Israel have been. And they have never called us sh#thole countries. Something that some among us conveniently forget. For the money. 

I will conclude with what I consider a pragmatic way forward. In this age of global international uncertainty the words of the great pan Africanist Kwame Nkrumah are apt, "AFRICA MUST UNITE!" Beyond false diplomatic platitudes and pandering to the whims of former colonial powers. 

We cannot allow Trump, Rubio and Netanyahu to give a global impression that they can turn back our struggle hands of time to colonial frameworks of global interaction. Where we become natives again. 

That would be ahistorical and a betrayal of our own African being. 

We can overcome if we re-unite as Africans and revive the global humane solidarities that are now sorely lacking globally in order tonstop these unnecessary cruel globalised wars. 

*Takura Zhangazha writes here in his personal capacity 

Twitter: @TakuraZhangazha