On Monday, as the cholera death toll in South Africa’s most populous province rose to 15, residents blamed the government for failing to provide safe drinking water.
On Sunday, a cholera outbreak was declared in Hammanskraal, a Tshwane suburb about 50 kilometers (31 miles) north of Pretoria, the capital city.
On Monday, the city government issued a warning to residents of Hammanskraal and the surrounding areas not to drink the tap water, citing nearly 100 people seen at hospitals and 37 admitted to wards.
Sello Samuel Lekoto, 36, an unemployed Hammanskraal resident being treated for cholera at Jubilee Hospital, stated, “We are drinking that water, but they don’t want to clean that water, or to put another pipe to give us the all right water.”
According to city statements, the water supplied by the city in Hammanskraal is not drinkable, but the city uses tankers to deliver clean drinking water to nearby informal settlements on a regular basis.
“The issue of water in Tshwane has been a problem for a number of years,” South Africa’s Deputy Minister of Water and Sanitation, David Mahlobo, said in a briefing.
“There have been issues politically and issues over conflicts in such a way that citizens were exposed,” he explained.
Cholera is an infectious disease spread through the consumption of contaminated food or water. Death can occur within hours if not treated.
South African health officials have confirmed 41 cases across the country. 34 of them have been discovered in the Gauteng province, one in Limpopo, and six in the Free State state.
He also stressed that the cases in the Free State province were unrelated to those elsewhere.
The first cholera death was reported in South Africa in February, after the virus had spread from neighboring Malawi.
