Discover the most recent updates, delve into in-depth analysis, and explore informative explainers on cholera, following a devastating outbreak in Tshwane.
Unrestricted access to clean drinking water remains but a dream for Hammanskraal residents in the City of Tshwane nearly a year after the deaths of dozens of people in Gauteng from cholera, an illness linked to poor water quality.
A year-long internal disciplinary process has found the five officials guilty of one of the four charges they faced and recommended a sanction of suspension for one month without pay — a penalty the City of Tshwane believes is not harsh enough.
Following a public outcry over the high number of unemployed doctors in the country, Health Minister Dr Joe Phaahla said the department did not have the money to employ them, but that more posts would soon become available.
A case of cholera has been confirmed in the Nelson Mandela Bay metro and while the municipality insisted that the drinking water is safe, it said on Monday that the affected woman had been exposed to sewage from a large sewage spill in her yard.
The Eastern Cape Health Department said it appeared to be an isolated case, but outbreak teams were conducting contact tracing as the woman had attended a funeral before falling ill.
In the aftermath of the cholera outbreak in May centred on Hammanskraal that claimed more than 20 lives, there are lingering concerns about the quality of water supplied to the area by the City of Tshwane.
Now that he has been re-elected as the leader of the DA in Gauteng, Solly Msimanga is vying to become the party’s candidate for premier in the 2024 elections.
A significant portion of our untreated sewage never even gets to our sewage plants. It goes straight into streams, rivers, dams, groundwater, and ultimately the ocean — untreated and unaccounted for.
Understanding the background to the neoliberal political economy that underpins government policy choices is a starting point for addressing the changes needed to reduce the excesses of our country’s poverty, unemployment and inequality. This Part Two of a two-part series.
Against the backdrop of the cholera outbreak that has now left more than 30 people dead, Johannesburg Water invited the media to one of the entity’s best-functioning sewerage works. But one working sewerage works is a drop in the river when 40% of SA’s wastewater treatment works are woefully inadequate.
The first of two articles examining water-related health crises in South Africa asks why we have learnt nothing from previous crises and why our government, having responded to each new crisis with the same or similar pledges arising out of previous crises, ignores the pledges once each event is over. This is Part One of a two-part series.
Although ‘we are not out of the woods yet’, the Department of Health is pleased with a decline in cholera cases despite the ongoing water and sanitation crisis.
On Monday, 26 June Hammanskraal residents will be taking a solution to the sewage and unsafe water crisis into their own hands by mobilising about 500 local volunteers and residents from nearby communities like Atteridgeville to clean up areas plagued by illegal dumpsters.
In the Auditor-General’s polite language, doubt exists about the City of Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality continuing as ‘a going concern’. These financial alarm bells are being sounded amid a merry-go round of mayors in a core metro in the country, a metro that has also racked up a debt of almost R2-billion to Eskom. But residents are not watching idly – some are protesting in the streets for better services, and others like the Queenswood Residents Association, are putting the books under scrutiny.
A boil-before-drinking notice for Makhanda and surrounding towns’ water will remain in place after the Makana Local Municipality admitted that there was widespread E. coli contamination. This will require an extensive clean-up, especially as the working theory is that the town’s drinking water was being contaminated by polluted groundwater.
President Cyril Ramaphosa said various spheres of government would work together to resolve the Hammanskraal water crisis, but it’s unclear where the money will come from.
South Africa is food insecure and prone to food-borne disease outbreaks, with the most notable being the 2017-18 listeriosis outbreak. Studies show investigations of outbreaks are poor and so are preventative measures by the food industry, government, and citizens.
The Nelson Mandela Bay municipality has introduced mapping technology coupled with wastewater surveillance to detect signs of a potential cholera outbreak as early as possible.
The Scientific Advisory Group on Emergencies says the loss of lives to cholera in Hammanskraal is symptomatic of a widening collapse of water treatment facilities that could precipitate multiple health and environmental emergencies.
Health minister Dr Joe Phaahla said while the source of the outbreak had still not been established, there was a downward trend in cases. The first two cases were reported almost three months ago. Meanwhile, the Auditor-General on Wednesday said that the outbreak was a ‘harsh reminder of the impact of ‘continued neglect’ at a local government level, and that a ‘material irregularity’ had been issued regarding the Rooiwal wastewater treatment plant.
A government investigation is yet to find the source of contaminated water, while 23 people have lost their lives and dozens have been hospitalised.
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