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Project properties |
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| Title | The Water Caucus - water activists under siege in South Africa |
| Group | Water Resources Management group |
| Project type | thesis |
| Credits | 36 |
| Supervisor(s) | Alex Bolding (WRM) |
| Examiner(s) | |
| Contact info | Lumen room C 045 |
| Begin date | 2020/01/01 |
| End date | 2022/01/01 |
| Description | Country: South Africa
Host institute: University of Johannesburg and the Water Caucus Period: asap Problem context During the Rio+10 World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg, South Africa, in 2002, Ronnie Kasrils, the then Minister for Water Affairs, proudly announced that South Africa had mobilised its own independent network of water activists that would act as a critical watch dog ’ for the Department of Water Affairs. South Africa led the pack in terms of progressive water policies and the Water Caucus activists network was the jewel in the crown, a sure guarantee that the country's post apartheid transformation agenda would become a reality. But as usual in South Africa, brilliant ideas have gone to seed. Almost twenty years on, the water activists have become hunted prey of rent seeking ANC councillors, who cannot not stand public scrutiny of their nebulous construction fraud practices. Research Objective/Question Water caucus activists in the Eastern Cape Province have unearthed numerous scandals involving construction fraud, bribery and glaring forms of gate keeping by ANC councillors active in the water and sanitation sector in numerous Municipalities. The network also remains critical of the ineffectual, under staffed and failing Department of Water and Sanitation. As a result their work is obstructed, activists get killed, while others disappear or quit. Meanwhile, the developmental State has become 'captured' and rural communities suffer from declining coverage of access to basic water and sanitation services. This raises many questions: - How has the water caucus fared over the past 18 years what have been its major achievements and set backs? - What can we learn from its network of activists is independent scrutiny of pubic institutions still possible? What strategies of critical citizen science are effective in giving the poor a voice? What is expected from the student (type of research) Three months of independent field work, tracking and interviewing water caucus activists. In-depth study of a limited number of water scandals in the Eastern Cape Province. Application of ethnographic research techniques. |
| Used skills | Ethnographic case study research |
| Requirements | Not for the faint hearted, tenacity helps |