Tshwane to offer financial aid to cholera-hit families… soon

The City of Tshwane says it is looking to provide financial assistance to the families of those who died from cholera, but has warned of a slight delay.

A cholera outbreak has cost some residents in Hammanskraal, Tshwane, and the Free State their lives, while hundreds more have been hospitalised.

At least 24 people have died from the the diarrhoeal disease as of 27 May.

Tests

Addressing the media to provide an update on the latest water test results in Hammanskraal, Tshwane Mayor Cilliers Brink indicated on Monday that there has been 23 new cholera cases over the last 24 hours, however, no deaths have been reported.

The source of the outbreak, Brink said, was still yet to be identified.

The mayor said cholera has not been detected at the Rooiwal Waste Water Treatment Works and pointed out that water quality tests at distribution points were still being conducted.

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He revealed that a total of 157 water samples have been collected, with 45 showing no positive traces of cholera.

The water samples were taken from various sources including schools, funeral parlours and households in the area.

Tests were also carried out on water tankers providing water in Hammanskraal and they had no traces of cholera.

Financial assistance

Brink said he has since written to Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi about providing funds to cholera-hit families.

“I’ve asked the premier if he can match that allocation because that will assist us. I have not received a response from him, but I will follow up.”

The mayor, however, warned that the funds won’t be paid out anytime soon.

“Unfortunately, it is not as easy as just paying out the money or paying out invoices because that can land me in certain findings of irregularity.”

He said the money will come from the mayoral discretionary fund.

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“It’s not usually used for this purpose, but given the tragedy and circumstances that we have [at the moment]. The only problem is that we have to go through certain processes so there will necessarily be a delay in getting the financial assistance to the families,” he told reporters.

“Remember there is also the process of talking to the families, identifying who to give the support to, establishing the next of kin and we have got social workers who are dealing with that. There are, I think, one or two instances of undocumented foreign nationals who have also succumbed and we must see how we deal with those circumstances.”

Brink said that he was also engaging with other spheres of government to find out whether funds were available.

Water tankers

Brink warned Hammanskraal residents not to buy water from tankers, saying the metropolitan municipality was providing the water free of charge.

“The City of Tshwane and licensed contractors are not allowed to charge for water. We, as the city, are paying for that. Unless somebody has a permit, they are not allowed to sell water especially in these circumstances because we don’t know where the water comes,” he said.

The mayor further noted a Sunday Times article about allegations of criminality regarding the water trucks.

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“We don’t have any evidence of that thus far, but what I can tell is if we fix Rooiwal and make sure that water is supplied through our infrastructure, the water tanker business is going to lose a lot of money,” he said.

“There are contracts in place holding them to certain standards and [if] they do misbehave we can cancel those contracts.”

Last week, the city announced that it would allocate R450 million over the next three years to complete the first phase of upgrades at the Rooiwal water plant.

At least R2.5 billion will be needed for the second phase of the project.

The Rooiwal system releases water to the Leeuwkraal Dam, which is extracted by Temba Water Treatment Works and then distributed to households in Hammanskraal.