IT has been almost 30 years since Mzansi had democracy, but the struggle continues as people are still struggling with access to basic needs.
This headache remains for most villagers, but the same is now mushrooming in semi-urbanised areas, where the poorly performing government is negatively finding itself in the limelight as it is being exposed.
Access to clean water has been a challenge which has triggered yet another disease outbreak, cholera. Residents from Hammanskraal, Tshwane, recently had to crawl to hospitals for help and the cholera death toll spiked daily.
For more than 20 years, residents have been complaining about being provided dirty water by the municipality. But their pleas for clean water fell on deaf ears until they finally received attention when people started dying like flies. Other provinces were not spared from the deadly ailment, with Free State accounting for 5% of the cases, followed by Limpopo, Mpumalanga and the North West.
READ| INFOGRAPHIC: Water crisis exposes years of empty promises!
For a sickness that was first confirmed in Mzansi 49 years ago, such could have been avoided. But the Department of Health confirmed more than 150 cases.
The recent 50 deaths could have been avoided if people's cries for better services were heard. Government’s tendency of being a step behind in dealing with ticking bombs has become deadly for innocent lives. But despite such an alarming situation, some communities are still sharing water with animals at streams, rivers and dams as they have lost hope of ever getting clean water.
Year in and year out, government officials and politicians have been visiting Hammanskraal for the past 20 years, which was recently dubbed the epicentre of the cholera outbreak. However, they left the area without a permanent solution to the community’s water challenges and promises have never been fulfilled. For the past 20 years, government has never raised the budget to maintain Rooiwal Waste Water Treatment Plant, which has been pointed out as being old, malfunctioning and failing to provide the required clean water. It has always been a budget issue for them, an issue that has now led to lives being lost.
Remarkably after all the deaths and pain, the City of Tshwane recently announced that R450 million has been allocated towards upgrading Rooiwal Waste Water Treatment Plant over a three-year period. Well, did this have to wait until people died?
During his widely anticipated visit to the cholera struck Hammanskraal, all President Cyril Ramaphosa could say was: "I’m sorry."
This after senior citizens and kids as young as three years old had passed on from what could have been avoided. The question that now remains is: what else will Mzansi have to endure which can be avoided by providing the necessities, which are human rights?
