On Thursday, April 3, 2025, the Our Water, Our Right Africa Coalition (OWORAC) convened the Zimbabwe Roundtable on Water Justice, a strategic solidarity meeting in response to a recent policy shift by the Zimbabwean government to privatise essential public services, with water supply as a primary target.
The roundtable brought together a mix of civil society actors, trade unionists, grassroots organisers, and international allies from across Africa who issued a strong a rejection of the government’s plan to hand over control of urban water supply to private interests. This rejection follows a controversial announcement made on January 6, 2025, by the Minister for Local Government, declaring that Zimbabwe’s urban water system would be fully privatised.
Participants, particularly activists from Zimbabwe resisting the new policy, expressed deep concern at the roundtable about the devastating consequences that water privatisation could unleash on working-class and rural communities. There was broad agreement that the claim of inefficiency in state-owned water utilities – a common justification for privatisation – is both flawed and dangerous. Stakeholders emphasised that the government lacks a robust regulatory framework to hold private corporations accountable, and warned that these private entities could replicate, or even exacerbate, the failures currently associated with public utilities, all while placing profit over people.
The meeting also provided space for pro-public water advocates from across the continent beyond to share hard-won lessons and effective strategies from past struggles against water privatisation in their own countries. These stories of resistance and resilience offered invaluable insights and most importantly, renewed strength for Zimbabwean activists organising against the looming threat.
The meeting ended on a resolute note, with participants reaffirming their collective commitment to protecting water as a public good and a human right. The spirit of solidarity ran deep, and so did the call to action: water is not for sale.
