Pretoria - Karabo Baloyi, 25, died last week at home after consuming tap water in Hammanskraal, but he was never taken to Jubilee District Hospital for treatment.
His distraught father, David Baloyi, yesterday told the Pretoria News that his son was not counted among the 15 deaths that were reported by health authorities on Monday.
His son’s death comes amid a cholera outbreak that was officially declared in the area by the government this week.
Many people have been admitted to the hospital because of diarrhoeal disease or gastrointestinal infection in the area since Monday last week.
Baloyi said that his son, who was deaf and used sign language to communicate, drank water from the tap because he was thirsty.
“I guess it was because he was thirsty, and he just rushed to a tap to quench his thirst,” he said.
Baloyi said that the water looked clean after being poured into a glass or container, but it changed into a brownish colour with slime after two to three days.
That was on Wednesday last week, when he was told that his son had drunk tap water.
“All of a sudden, he got ill and started to vomit, and he also had a running tummy.”
He said that the family never took him to hospital because “we were trying to keep an eye on him, thinking that he would get better, but he unfortunately died”.
Baloyi said: “The water that is coming from our taps looks like river water. Those who are doing laundry would tell you that it even stains white clothes. We are always careful not to use this dirty water. And now I lost my son.”
He said the community has expressed disappointment with the quality of water repeatedly, for a long time, but their plea fell on deaf ears.
“We have been worrying for far too long about this water. To make matters worse, the municipality is expecting us to pay for the water we can’t drink. Every month we are receiving municipal bills amounting to thousands of rand,” he said.
Regarding his son’s death, he said: “As a parent, it is painful to lose your child, and that is a pain a stranger will never understand.
“People will say they are sorry, but they have no idea about the type of pain I feel inside.”
Residents collect water from a water truck in Skampaneng, Hammanskraal due to a Cholera outbreak. Video: Jacques Naude @CityTshwane @GautengHealth #CholeraOutbreak pic.twitter.com/byncusyLkC
— Pretoria News (@pretorianews) May 23, 2023
One of the residents, Grace Motale, expressed worries that three of her nephews had been hospitalised at Jubilee Hospital last week after falling sick from drinking tap water.
Motale, from the Skampaneng section, said all her nephews experienced runny tummies last week but never vomited.
“Even myself, I am sick because of this water, but I am better today. This water is going to kill many people in the township.
“We have complained, but our government just doesn’t care. We don’t drink tap water at all because it is the one upsetting our stomach,” she said.
Like many residents, Motale complained that some people distributing water were selling it to residents.
“Some water tankers don’t pour water for people using buckets; they prefer to distribute water to those having Jojo tanks,” she said.
Another resident, Shadrack Skhosana, from the Suurman section, said: “This problem has been running since 2017, if I remember correctly. When you drink water from the tap, it seems as if you had fallen inside a drain. It smells very bad. Sometimes the water from the tap is brown or green.”
He said he failed to understand how the government would afford to pay people to distribute water but could not use the same budget to clean water for residents.
“And that means someone got a tender and that someone is taking the money that is supposed to clean the water. Now people are dying. There is no water for free. We buy water from one of our neighbours with a borehole,” he said.
Pretoria News