It’s stunning that Ramaphosa is still welcome in Hammanskraal

President Cyril Ramaphosa didn’t realise it yesterday when he visited Hammanskraal and the broken sewage treatment plant which spews effluent… but he was in the middle of a contemporary South African metaphor.

Nothing works as it should and the environment, and the citizens, get sprayed by the actual and metaphorical brown smelly stuff.

ALSO READ: ‘We are sorry’: Ramaphosa offers apology to Hammanskraal residents over water quality issues

He and Gauteng premier Panyaza Lesufi looked, as they usually do on their regular media clips, “shocked” or “concerned”. And, of course, not quite fully informed, because they never looked at the back of the Rooiwal plant, where raw, untreated sewage is being pumped into the Apies River.

Whether or not the 20 cholera deaths in the Hammanskraal area were caused by this untreated effluent is still not known.

But Ramaphosa used the opportunity to blame the Tshwane municipality for ignoring warnings from the national department of water and sanitation about the ongoing collapse of the facility.

However, the most stunning aspect of the carefully choreographed visit was the enthusiasm with which Ramaphosa was greeted. This, remember, was a community devastated because of non-existent service delivery.

ALSO READ: Ramaphosa to visit Hammanskraal amid cholera outbreak

And the people still cheered and ululated. Dying to see to president, you might cynically say. ANC opponents have a lot to do before 2024.