The people of Delmas are suffering from an epidemic that does not officially exist.
Despite the death of an infant and the treatment of 690 people in Botleng for diarrhoea in the past two weeks, authorities say they can find no cure for the illness sweeping the area.
Residents fear this is a recurrence of an outbreak of typhoid in 2005, which was caused by municipal water being contaminated with human faeces. But the Delmas municipality says it has conducted tests and found no link between the diarrhoea epidemic and the municipal water supply.
Local residents do not accept this explanation, saying they have conducted their own informal community experiment, drinking bottled water exclusively. Those who have drunk only bottled water claim their symptoms have cleared up entirely.
“I had a runny tummy and I stopped drinking the tap water and since then I stopped having any problems,” said resident Sizakele Mtshali (23).
Bottled water is a luxury few Botleng residents can afford: most are employed as farm and domestic workers, with a lucky few earning better wages in the civil service.
Menzi Supermarket in Botleng Extension 3 used to sell about 10 bottles of water over seven days; now it orders 100 bottles a week.
“Buying 5-litre bottled water daily means we have to sacrifice things that we need such as cooking oil, milk and bread,” explained Anna Shoshi (45), who earns R800 per month as a domestic worker. She said that since her family stopped drinking the tap water the diarrhoea has disappeared. They now only use the municipal water for bathing and doing laundry.
“When this problem happened before, they said they would sort it out, but they have never gotten back to us. Now people are sick again; when they go to hospital they are given medication but they are not told what caused them to get sick — it is so hidden,” said Shoshi, shaking her head in despair.
The Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) in Mpumalanga agrees with the residents and believes that the water is the cause of the diarrhoea.
“We suspect a cover-up,” said Bheki Khoza, spokesperson for the TAC in Mpumalanga. He added that the TAC is awaiting the results of independently commissioned tests on the water.
Delmas mayor Jack Rapatsa, who cuts a dashing figure in his gold suit and pointed leopard-skin shoes, said there is no reason for residents to suspect the truth is being kept from them.
“I am always on TV and radio talking to the people about what they should do to avoid any problems. I have hired people to deal with this problem. You cannot expect me to go out into the streets and talk to people,” Rapatsa said.
He claimed that, while there is no certainty about the cause of the diarrhoea outbreak, he is prepared to consider the residents’ claims.
“I do give the people the benefit of the doubt when they say it is water, because you must remember I represent the people.”
Department of Water Affairs and Forestry spokesperson Linda Page told the M&G Online that there is no conclusive evidence linking the diarrhoea cases to the quality of drinking water.
The provincial department of health also claims the tap water is safe for human consumption, but has advised residents to boil drinking water as an added precaution. Health workers in the area have been barred from talking to the media about the outbreak. Nursing sister Sweetness Mokgonyane, who works at the Botleng Extension 2 clinic, said they are under strict instructions from the municipality not to speak to anyone about what is going on.
Residents believe the river that runs through Botleng may be the source of the outbreak. A pigsty stands on its banks and the animals roam freely, drinking from the stream, cooling themselves in the shallows and defecating in the water.
“There is a sewage plant right here and waste from the sewage plant comes into the water … we can smell the waste from here. We should not be living anywhere near the sewage and we should not be drinking water that is linked with the sewage or the river where pigs are running and washing,” said Ntokozo Mkwena (25), who lives in the area.
For the family of 14-month-old Nqobile Zulu the argument is not just academic. They buried the toddler last week and the pain is tangible in their three-room shack.
“She had a runny tummy. When we realised it was not stopping we took her to the doctor and they said it was diarrhoea,” explained her grandmother Agatha Sekele.
“The diarrhoea continued so her mother took her to the Bernice Samuel Hospital in town. They sent her home with medication, without saying what had caused the diarrhoea. She passed away that same day,” Sekele said.