Miraftab, F. 2004. “Neoliberalism and Casualization of strongPublicstrong.pdfVIP

Miraftab, F. 2004. “Neoliberalism and Casualization of Public Sector Services: The Case of Waste Collection Services in Cape Town, South Africa.” International Journal of Urban and Regional Research 28(4): 874-92. The final, definitive version is available at /journal/10.1111/%28ISSN%291468-2427 Neoliberalism and Casualization of Public Sector Services: The Case of Waste Collection Services in Cape Town, South Africa Faranak Miraftab faranak@ Abstract This paper focuses on the waste collection strategies of the municipal government in Cape Town, South Africa. This case is used as a point of entry to a much wider debate on global neoliberalism and the privatization of municipal services. The analysis of the case study sheds light on the links between the cost recovery agenda of the neoliberal state and the casualization of labor. To minimize costs the privatizing local governments, like private sector firms, rely on and have further enhanced the casualization of labor. This blurs the conceptual distinction between the public and private sectors whereby the local governments treat citizens as customers with stratified entitlements to basic services. Stressing the continuities of apartheid under the neoliberal policies, the paper highlights the specific ways in which the neoliberal state in its post- apartheid moment uses gender ideologies and the rhetoric of voluntarism and black empowerment to justify its use of casual labor and the precarious working conditions among poor women of black townships. Acknowledgement: I am most grateful to the dedicated and irreplaceable efforts of Nicole Lamers during fieldwork in Cape Town. I also acknowledge ILRIG, in particular Mthetho Xali for his valuable assistance with fieldwork, and John Pape for his