The tragic deaths of over 30 people in the Hammanskraal area from cholera directly linked to inadequate water purification in municipal water plants has moved the epidemic of inadequate service delivery from being a mere inconvenience, to being life threatening to residents.
As per the usual script, politicians, all the way to the President scrambled to pretend that they felt for the victims and communities, casting about for somewhere to lay the blame, and divert attention from the raw disdain the ruling elite have cultivated for the rank and file.
They found an easy mark in the current DA led Tshwane Metro, conveniently ignoring the fact that huge contracts to upgrade the purification infrastructure awarded while they were in power to well-connected cronies, went unfinished, despite the full contract values having been disbursed.
As, I followed the events as they unfolded, together with a mounting death toll, I fervently hoped that the powers in charge at Ugu were just as intently monitoring the situation and putting together contingency plans to avoid the same occurring here. Recent reports of effluent being pumped into the sea at the ‘Block’ appears, to all intents, belie this possibility.
The disdain the government shows to its citizens is also extended to its own ‘Chapter 9’ institutions. This is patently evident, in that despite the fact that the SA Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) declared the lack of clean water in Hammanskraal a violation of residents human rights in September 2021, nothing was done by central government to address the issue in any meaningful way.
The issues that culminated in the deaths of the 30 plus residents was more than 5 years in the making, with the SAHRC initiating its first investigations in 2018. Yet the Minister of Water Affairs Senzo Mcunu, during a visit in late May as the death toll mounted was quoted in a report on News 24 that ‘events of the past few days was regrettable’. Perhaps ‘avoidable’ would have been more accurate, but admitting failure is certainly not, and has never been in the ruling party’s vocabulary.
The events in Hammanskraal are a clear indication that we have reached the thin edge of the wedge when it comes to delivery of basic services in the country. If this doesn’t serve as a wake up call to the ruling party to firmly and swiftly address the collapse of local government, nothing will.
Vijay Naidoo is the CEO of the Port Shepstone Business Forum. He writes in his personal capacity. The views expressed are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect those of this publication.
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