Pretoria – A group of legal practitioners from Hammanskraal have come together to launch an urgent court application forcing government to provide clean water for the community besieged by a cholera outbreak.
“After that we are going to go to the Constitutional Court, demanding that the Constitutional Court declares that the water that the people have been drinking, and the service they have been getting is against their human rights,” advocate Moafrika wa Maila, one of the lawyers representing Hammanskraal families told Newzroom Afrika.
“Then after that, we are going the criminal way because once life has been lost, crime has been committed. Somebody must be held liable. The right to life has been infringed. The right to life has been cut short by dirty water,” he said on the interview.
“Who must we point the finger at? Definitely the president, Minister of Water and Sanitation, MEC for Water and Sanitation in Gauteng, MMC for Water and Sanitation in Tshwane, Minister and MMC for Health, the premier and the mayor … all these guys must take the blame,” he said.
Picture: Siyabulela Duda/GCIS
Wa Maila, who also leads the Active African Christians United Movement (AACUM) political party, said Ramaphosa’s much publicised trip to Hammanskraal, in the wake of the cholera outbreak, missed the point.
“Honestly, I feel that the visit of the president was another grandstanding. It was apolitical gimmick. He spoke about six months, how many people will be dead in six months. He spoke about finishing the project in three years, how many people will be dead in three years? How do we resolve the issue now?” Wa Maila asked.
“The meeting that happened (with Ramaphosa) at Temba Stadium is not a true reflection of Hammanskraal because 90% of people who have died, died in Kanana. He went to Temba unit D which is an upper-market area where people afford to buy water, people there are professionals and not much of the poor.
“Every time, he (Ramaphosa) come there (at Kanana) but this time he went to the other side. A large number of people that were there, there were six buses that carried people, not locally …the people were ferried from North West and Mpumalanga. The people who welcomed him are from the other provinces, not from the part which is inflicted a lot by this cholera,” said Wa Maila.
Picture: Siyabulela Duda/GCIS
Meanwhile, the Free State province has recorded its second cholera death, as the national death toll marches to 32.
The provincial health department said a 42-year-old woman died following her admittance at Boitumelo Hospital in Kroonstad.
“The patient is confirmed to have died and thereafter laboratory tests confirmed that the death is attributable to cholera,” said department spokesperson, Mondli Mvambi.
“The Free State MEC for Health, Mathabo Leeto, has sent her condolences to the family and officials of the department visited the family today to break the news,” Mvambi said.
On Thursday, national Health Department spokesperson, Foster Mohale said so far more than 600 people with suspected cholera symptoms have been seen in Gauteng and Free State hospitals.
