UK shows pitfalls in DA privatisation
· Citizen
The DA’s logical idea to suggest what would effectively be a privatisation of government services is appealing to both die-hard conservative capitalists and ordinary folk who live daily with the abject failure of most of our bureaucracy.
Business runs, for the most part, devoid of emotion and motivated solely by the bottom line.
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This means, so the logic goes, that it would not put up with the sort of inefficiency – and bloated wage bills – which flowed from the cadre deployment policy of the ANC.
Privatisation in SA
That may well be the case, but would that tight control of expenditure trickle down to the users of those public services, who are ordinary consumers? Experience, both in this country and elsewhere, suggests perhaps not.
Business, of whatever size, works to grow the wealth of its owners, whether they be individuals or a group of shareholders.
Pay gap
And the world-leading discrepancy between what company chiefs are paid and their lowest-paid workers is an indication that the workers providing these newly privatised services will get paid the bare minimum.
At the same time, those in the executive suite will get to take home windfall pay packages.
Then, there is the very real possibility that the new capitalist bosses, because they would have a captive market and no competition for these services, would be tempted to cut corners or increase charges to pad the profits even more.
Privatisation not working in UK
That has already happened in the UK, where privatised rail services are now the most expensive and least efficient in Europe, and where sewage is being dumped in rivers and the sea because privatised sewage disposal groups are not doing their jobs properly.
Ordinary water supplies, also privatised in the UK, are not nearly as good as they used to be, consumers complain.
Privatisation has the potential to backfire, so it needs careful consideration.