MALAIKA MAHLATSI | Cholera deaths a result of Tshwane's lethargy

A week ago, numerous people in Hammanskraal, a township north of Pretoria, started getting sick. They were presenting with severe diarrhoea and dehydration. Within days, some of them died. This past Sunday, the Gauteng department of health officially confirmed a cholera outbreak in the area after the lab results of 19 people who were admitted to Jubilee District Hospital indicated that they had tested positive for the Vibrio cholerae, the bacterium that causes cholera.

At the time of writing this article, the death toll from the outbreak stood at 15, with at least 37 people hospitalised. Over a hundred people have sought treatment for diarrhoeal disease in just ten days.

Cholera is an acute, diarrhoeal illness caused by infection of the intestine with the bacterium Vibrio cholerae. The bacterial disease is usually spread through contaminated water. Cholera causes severe diarrhoea and dehydration and if left untreated can be fatal within hours, even to healthy people.

This is because dehydration causes an electrolyte imbalance which can result in shock. This occurs when low blood volume causes a drop in blood pressure and a drop in the amount of oxygen in your body. If untreated, severe hypovolemic shock can cause death in minutes.

But while the bacterium Vibrio cholerae is the cause of the outbreak in Hammanskraal, the existence of the bacterium itself is the result of maladministration spanning decades. The cholera outbreak is linked to the water insecurity (and sanitation) crisis that began in 2005. This crisis has been driven by two factors: the deterioration of the Temba Water Purification Plant and the inability of the Rooiwal Wastewater Treatment Plant to meet the expanding population demands. Rooiwal was built in the 1960s and was intended to service a small population. However, following the end of apartheid, the wastewater treatment plan was not expanded and presently services more than 40% of the Tshwane population.

Over the years, various institutions have raised the alarm about the water quality in Hammanskraal. In 2019, the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research tested water samples from the township and discovered that it contained high concentrations of nitrites and nitrates, as well as traces of E. coli.

The ingestion of such contaminated water has been linked to the development of diseases such as colorectal, bladder and breast cancer, and thyroid diseases. Furthermore, water containing these heavy metals can also cause developmental and reproductive issues, and osteoporosis. In the same year, the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) declared the water insecurity crisis in Hammanskraal a violation of human rights, arguing that the tap water was unfit for human consumption. The SAHRC also visited the township just over a year ago, and raised the same concerns about the deteriorating state of the Temba plant.

Residents of Hammanskraal have been raising the alarm about the quality of water for almost two decades. The City of Tshwane has repeatedly failed to make any meaningful interventions. Instead, successive administrations have plundered the municipality’s resources to a point where the administrative capital is on the brink of collapse.

The recent auditor-general’s report detailing the corruption, maladministration and misappropriation of state resources in the capital city provides a glimpse into how resources meant to develop the infrastructure in Tshwane have been looted. Had this not happened, the municipality could have invested in modern sewage and water treatment technologies that have virtually eliminated cholera in industrialised countries.

The cholera outbreak In Hammanskraal is evidence that corruption and maladministration are not victimless crimes. Those who have died in the past week are casualties of the failures of the disastrous governance that the City of Tshwane has seen under both the ANC and the DA. And so, while the cause of death of the victims is cholera, the manner of death is, in reality, homicide. They were killed by a corrupt government that failed to uphold its constitutional obligations.