The Rise and Fall of Water Privatization in Rural South Africa: A Critical Evaluation of the ANC’s First Term of Office, 1994–1999

On coming to power in 1994, the first democratically elected government in South Africa was faced with a daunting task of developing and implementing a systematic programme of rural water delivery almost from scratch. Apartheid had created distorted rural settlement patterns, with scattered rural settlements in areas far from resources. A large number of Africans in rural areas had no formal water supply. In 1993 it was estimated that some 8 million rural residents lacked an adequate water supply and some 14 million did not have access to adequate sanitation (SAIRR 1994, pp253-54). Figures from 1990 indicate that as little as 25 per cent of the population had access to formal water supply in KwaZulu-Natal and the Transkei (SAIRR 1994, p354).