South Africans blame city as cholera cases rise

South Africans on Monday blamed their local government for failing to provide clean water as deaths from cholera rose to 15 in the country’s most populous province.
The health department in Gauteng province declared a cholera outbreak on Sunday in Hammanskraal, an area about 50 kilometres (31 miles) north of capital Pretoria, in the City of Tshwane.
Almost 100 people have been seen at hospital, and 37 have been admitted to wards, the city government said on Monday, warning residents of Hammanskraal and surrounding areas not to drink tap water.
“We are drinking that water, but they don’t want to clean that water, or to… put another pipe to give us the all right water,” said 36-year-old Sello Samuel Lekoto, an unemployed resident of Hammanskraal who is being treated at Jubilee Hospital for cholera.
The municipality said in statements that the water supplied by the city in Hammanskraal is not potable, but that the city provides clean drinking water through tankers to informal settlements several times a week.