Johannesburg : At least 17 people have died in a cholera outbreak in the Hammanskraal township outside South Africa’s capital, Pretoria, authorities said Wednesday.
The toll has risen from an initial 10 fatalities reported by local health authorities earlier this week.
Authorities said there were another 29 laboratory-confirmed cholera cases, while 67 people were admitted to a hospital and clinics for gastrointestinal infections.
Health authorities are yet to confirm the exact source of the cholera outbreak, but poor waste water management and local government instability in South Africa’s capital city have been blamed for the situation.
The City of Tshwane Municipality, which takes in Pretoria and surrounding areas, has had at least five different mayors since the ruling African National Congress party lost control in local government elections in 2016.
A water plant in Pretoria which is responsible for waste water management for large parts of Hammanskraal is in need of urgent upgrades estimated to cost about $130 million and hasn’t been functioning properly for years, the city’s mayor said.
“It has been out of capacity since about 2005,” said Tshwane executive mayor Cilliers Brink, who was elected in March.
The cholera cases in Africa have been attributed to local sanitation problems, but also climatic factors like cyclones and floods that hit parts of southern Africa recently as well as a global shortage in cholera vaccines.
