Today SERI convened a civil society roundtable discussion on municipal indigent policies and the provision of free basic services (FBS) in South Africa. The roundtable marked the official launch of a SERI research report entitled "Targeting the Poor? An Analysis of Free Basic Services (FBS) and Municipal Indigent Policies in South Africa". A summary of the report is available here.
The report provides an overview of the law and policies relevant to free basic services (FBS) and municipal indigent policies in South Africa. It details the regulations and strategies around FBS - which includes free basic water (FBW), free basic electricity (FBE), free basic sanitation (FBSan) and free basic refuse removal (BRR) - and examines the framework policy and implementation guidelines for municipal indigent policies.
SERI's research highlights problems with the implementation of indigent policies, around the following issues: targeting methods for FBS, municipal systems of indigent application, conditionalities attached to indigent status and FBS, and FBS amount provided. While the policy aim of the FBS programme is ensure that poor households are able to access basic services, its current implementation has the overall effect of targeting poor households for exclusion.