APA-Pretoria (South Africa) South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has pledged to solve water problems faced by residents of Pretoria’s Hammanskraal township as his government moves to bring an end to a cholera outbreak that has killed several people in recent weeks.
Visiting the community of Hammanskraal on Thursday following the recent outbreak of the disease, Ramaphosa admitted that his government had failed the residents who have been without quality water for many years.
“We are sorry that we have not been able to provide you with the basic human right of clean water and that it has taken the lives of people,” Ramaphosa told the residents at Temba Stadium in the area.
He added: “We have not lived up to your expectation and we are now going to do things right.”
As a short-term measure, Ramaphosa said he would dispatch a team of experts to build a small waterworks in Hammanskraal, while local authorities embarked on a US$210 million project to revamp the main waterworks at the Rooiwal Wastewater Treatment plant which was built in the 1950s.
The water treatment plant has not been maintained for quite some time, resulting in rusty pipes and non-working machines, he said.
Ramaphosa bemoaned corruption in the awarding of tenders for the building of infrastructure, saying some of the tenders issued by the city of Pretoria for repairing and extension of the Rooiwal waterworks were awarded to unqualified contractors who did not finish the work.
“Had the work been done properly at that waterworks, the provision of clean quality water would have been there.”
Ramaphosa’s visit to Hammanskraal came as the National Department of Health announced on Thursday that the nationwide cholera death toll stood at 31, with 166 laboratory-confirmed cases between February 1 and June 6 this year.
NM/jn/APA