The persisting conditions of ‘Day Zero’: How chronic crisis challenges media narratives about the Cape Town water crisis

Thesis (MA)--Stellenbosch University, 2021.ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The Cape Town water crisis of 2017 to 2019 became national and international news due to the risk of a major metropole running out of water. What this portrayal neglects to include is the fact that for a significant proportion of households in the city, ‘Day Zero’ (the day the taps would run dry) was already a daily reality long before the onset of the drought. Traditional media, such as newspapers, radio broadcasts, and television broadcasts, framed the water crisis as the‘great equaliser’. However, when you begin to unpack this narrative and the media coverage around the crisis, the idea of it being a ‘great equaliser’quickly unravels. Developments prior to and during the drought reveals infrastructural inequalities and conditions of living that Vigh (2008) refers to as ‘chronic crisis’. That is, for the vast majority of the poor in Cape Town’s informal settlements, the water ‘crisis’ is experienced not as a singular, extraordinary event, but rather as an enduring, chronic condition which is experienced on a daily basis. Regarded as ‘ordinary suffering’ and unspectacular ‘slow violence’, these communities often have to perpetually struggle to access a basic means of survival under circumstances rendered invisible to a wider middle-class public. In this light, this project aims to show that how we understand the experience of the drought is multifaceted and tied to historic injustice, the presence and absence of infrastructure, and what role media–both traditional and social–played in the crisis. It seeks to show that the narrative of a ‘great equaliser’should be problematized as crisis is not experienced homogenously. This study collected data by conducting in-person formal and informal interviews, doing participant observation, and analysing media documentation to construct an ethnography to highlight the varied experiences of Cape Town’s ‘Day Zero’. In the context of the Kildare Road spring, I highlight how the crisis did not start, nor end, with the ‘Day Zero’ campaign. Rather, it started long before,and is still being experienced.AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die Kaapstadse waterkrisis van 2017 tot 2019 het nasionale en internasionale nuus geword vanweë die risiko dat 'n groot metropool sonder water sou wees. Wat hierdie uitbeelding versuim om in te sluit, is die feit dat 'Dag Zero' (die dag waarop die krane droog sou raak) vir 'n beduidende deel van die huishoudings in die stad al 'n daaglikse werklikheid was lank voor die aanvang van die droogte. Tradisionele media, soos koerante, radio-uitsendings en televisie-uitsendings, het die waterkrisis omskryf as die 'groot gelykmaker'. As u egter hierdie vertelling en die mediadekking rondom die krisis begin uitpak, ontrafel die idee dat dit 'n 'groot gelykmaker' is. Ontwikkelings voor en tydens die droogte onthul infrastruktuur ongelykhede en lewensomstandighede waarna Vigh (2008) 'chroniese krisis' noem. Dit wil sê, vir die oorgrote meerderheid van die armes in Kaapstad se informele nedersettings, word die waterkrisis nie as 'n unieke, buitengewone gebeurtenis ervaar nie, maar eerder as 'n blywende, chroniese toestand wat daagliks ervaar word. Hierdie gemeenskappe word beskou as 'gewone lyding' en 'n onspektakulêre 'stadige geweld', en hulle moet voortdurend sukkel om toegang te verkry tot 'n basiese oorlewingsmiddel onder omstandighede wat onsigbaar is vir 'n breër middelklas-publiek. In hierdie lig het hierdie projek ten doel om aan te toon dat die manier waarop ons die ervaring van die droogte verstaan, veelsydig is en gekoppel is aan historiese ongeregtigheid, die aanwesigheid en afwesigheid van infrastruktuur, en watter rol media -sowel tradisioneel as sosiaal -in die krisis gespeel het. Dit poog om aan te toon dat die vertelling van 'n 'groot gelykmaker' geproblematiseer moet word, aangesien krisis nie homogeen ervaar word nie. Hierdie studie het data versamel deur personlike formele en informele onderhoude te voer, waarneming van deelnemers te doen en mediadokumentasie te ontleed om 'n etnografie te konstrueer om die uiteenlopende ervarings van Kaapstad se 'Day Zero' uit te lig. In die konteks van die Kildare Road-fontein beklemtoon ek hoe die krisis nie begin of eindig met die 'Day Zero'-veldtog nie. Dit het eerder lank tevore begin en word nog steeds ervaar.Master