The ACDP wishes to convey our condolences to the families who lost their loved ones due to the cholera outbreak in Hammanskraal and the surrounding areas, and we also wish all those who are hospitalised or sick at home a speedy recovery.
According to the Astral Foods Group, failing infrastructure and a lack of service delivery from a “government that is asleep at the wheel” is placing a massive cost burden on businesses and consumers. Government must take full responsibility for failing South Africans and creating one crisis after another.
They started with the electricity crisis with Eskom failing to provide electricity to ordinary consumers and businesses. Now we have failing water supply networks with some towns and suburbs going for weeks without water. Some residents in various parts of the country have been receiving brownish water from their taps for months now.
After complaining for many years about the shortage of drinking water in Hammanskraal, nothing has changed. In 2019, the Human Rights Commission (HRC) went to Hammanskraal to investigate the alleged contamination of water in the area and concluded that the water there was unfit for human consumption.
They asked the City of Tshwane Metro to correct what they said were human rights violations. They further advised the City to rectify the situation by fixing the water treatment plants to ensure that the water gets purified. Again, nothing was done. Ward councillors have claimed that their grievances have fallen on deaf ears.
To date, fifteen people have now lost their lives and numerous more are fighting for theirs in Hammanskraal and the surrounding areas because of this cholera outbreak.
Government ministers have reportedly called on the residents of Hammanskraal to stay calm as the situation is under control. This is extremely insensitive to the sufferings of families who have been complaining about the poor water quality they have been using for numerous years now, yet nothing was done to remedy the situation.
All politicians who have both controlled the Tshwane Municipality should stop blaming one another and accept their failures to prevent the ongoing water crisis that residents say has plagued them for decades.
The ACDP calls on the current administration to prioritise and take immediate action to remedy this situation and to provide basic services to the people of Hammanskraal, particularly giving them access to clean water as the Constitution provides.
-ENDS-
