Description
How can we reverse the insidious effects of commodification, the role of the market in shaping service delivery, and the way we 'value' essential goods such as water?
Governments around the world are aggressively moving toward full cost recovery measures. Cost recovery impacts access to services, affordability and privatisation. Centered on case studies in a number of South African municipalities, this book critically examines 'cost recovery', the heart of this new municipal vision of balanced budgets and fiscal restraint.

About the authors
Dr David A. McDonald is the Director of the Development Studies programme at Queens University in Canada, and Co-Director of the Municipal Services Project. A political economist and geographer, McDonald has written extensively on issues of municipal service delivery, local government, environmental justice and international migration in Southern Africa.

Dr John Pape is the Co-Director of the International Labour Resource and Information Group (ILRIG) at the University of Cape Town. He has written widely on economic and political issues, including local government and service delivery. Pape has produced a number of publications on issues such as globalisation, economic policy, privatisation, gender and labour history.

Table of Contents

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

PREFACE

LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS

INTRODUCTION
by John Pape and David A. McDonald

CHAPTER 1
The Theory and Practice of Cost Recovery in South Africa
by David A. McDonald

CHAPTER 2
Debt, Disconnection and Privatisation
The Case of Fort Beaufort, Queenstown and Stutterheim
by Greg Ruiters

CHAPTER 3
Massive Cutoffs
Cost Recovery and Electricity Service in Diepkloof, Soweto
by Grace Khunou

CHAPTER 4
Cost Recovery and Prepaid Water Meters and the
Cholera Outbreak in KwaZulu-Natal
A case study in Madlebe
by Hameda Deedat and Eddie Cottle

CHAPTER 5
They are Killing us Alive
A Case Study of the Impact of Cost Recovery on
Service Provision in Makhaza Section, Khayelitsha
by Mthetho Xali

CHAPTER 6
The Struggle Against Encroachment
Constantia and the Defence of White Privilege in the New South Africa
by John Pape

CHAPTER 7
Viva Prepaids, Viva!
Assessing New Technology for Cost Recovery
in the Rural Northern Cape
by Hameda Deedat

CHAPTER 8
The Bell Tolls for Thee:
Cost Recovery, Cutoffs, and the Affordability
of Municipal Services in South Africa
by David A. McDonald

CHAPTER 9
Looking for Alternatives to Cost Recovery
by John Pape

INDEX