WARNING: This is Version 1 of my old archive, so Photos will NOT work and many links will NOT work. But you can find articles by searching on the Titles. There is a lot of information in this archive. Use the SEARCH BAR at the top right. Prior to December 2012; I was a pro-Christian type of Conservative. I was unaware of the mass of Jewish lies in history, especially the lies regarding WW2 and Hitler. So in here you will find pro-Jewish and pro-Israel material. I was definitely WRONG about the Boeremag and Janusz Walus. They were for real.
Original Post Date: 2008-04-27 Time: 00:00:00 Posted By: Jan
[Well, the dopes who run our infrastructure “save money” by cutting back on putting chlorine in the water. That is why the babies died. That is why stomach flu and stomach bugs are so very common in Johannesburg. Jan]
The grieving mothers of nearly 80 babies who died in the Eastern Cape after, the women believe, consuming contaminated water, are furious at being told by their municipality that their children were killed by HIV and Aids.
The Ukhahlamba District Municipality, already under fire for failing to heed calls about a water purification crisis, has now been accused of “dancing on the graves of the children” by celebrating Freedom Day on Sunday when more lives could be lost.
The municipal authorities have defied a warning from their own health department to publicise the breakdown of a water treatment works, and its feared ramifications, as a matter of emergency.
At least 62 children, ranging from infants to primary school children, have died in Sterkspruit and tap water is being blamed for the deaths. Another 15 children under the age of two have died since February in Barkly East. The children were diagnosed with a combination of diarrhoea, pneumonia and malnutrition.
Municipal officials have not contacted the parents in some of the areas in which babies have died, such as Sterkspruit, Maclear and Elliot.
A municipal health department report, tabled at a closed council meeting two weeks ago, a copy of which is in The Sunday Independent’s possession, warned of the dire consequences of the breakdown of a water-treatment works in October.
The municipality has been aware of an investigation into the deaths of the babies since April 2 but has not issued a public warning.
On Thursday, Mayor Thandiswa Marawu added salt to the wounds of grief-stricken mothers by saying in a radio interview that the babies’ deaths might have been caused by HIV/Aids and socioeconomic factors, such as poverty and malnutrition.
“Who is this woman? Does she even have children? How can she speak publicly about people’s HIV status without even asking for their permission. Our children have died and no one can bring them back,” said a fuming Nongazi Sopose, of Barkly East, whose three-month-old daughter, Sihle, died from diarrhoea in February.
Sopose, 29, is contemplating legal action. Challenging Marawu and her council to “come and test us”, Sopose blasted the authorities for failing to even pretend that they cared.
“Since this thing came out, no one from the council has bothered to call us so we can talk, or come and tell us what is going on. We need to know why our children were allowed to die and what must be done from now on,” she said.
Marawu declined to comment. However, Loyiso Magqashela, the head of the city’s technical services unit, said: “What the mayor was saying was that this thing should not be seen in isolation and there could be other factors involved.
“We are not denying that water might have been one of the factors, but we can’t run away from malnutrition, HIV and Aids. They say HIV doesn’t kill, but if people are not well fed … let’s consider these issues.”
He said the municipality had urged people to boil water and add bleach to it to ensure that it was clean.
Pulane Mohola, 24, told of the agony of losing her two-month-old son, Zukhanye, in February.
“The council is saying that all the people in this area are using water from the same treatment works, but that can’t be. Whenever I was using water from outside this area my son would be fine.
“The problem only started when we got back home. He always had diarrhoea and that is what the nurses at Frantina Hospital said killed him.
“Oh, I miss him so much,” she said, weeping.
Magqashela said on Friday: “We are still trying to get to the bottom of this. We are still confident that [the cause of the deaths] can’t be just water.”
He said the municipality’s water-treatment compliance for April was “100 percent”.
He denied that a water-treatment works had broken down: “It’s just old; there are certain things that don’t function, but it has never broken down.”
Asked why the water crisis was not being treated as an emergency, and why no public warning had been issued, Maqgashela said the municipality had chosen not to call a “big meeting” but instead to dispatch teams to the affected areas to “sensitise” residents.
“We realised in October that our water had not been complying [with water-treatment standards]. If it was so wrong … in October, then why didn’t something happen soon after that. Why did things happen much later, in February. You have to ask yourself this.”
Magqashela said the municipality had told officials to measure the tap water’s chlorine content and that a R3,8 million mobile water-treatment unit would be in operation by the end of next month as a temporary measure.
Retha de Bruyn, a Democratic Alliance councillor in Sterkspruit, said it was unacceptable for the municipality to carry on with Freedom Day celebrations because it had failed to take the “tiniest” action when it learned of the water problem.
“They are going ahead and dancing on the graves of babies. They are being indifferent and callous. These babies had no freedom. They died for doing the most natural thing on Earth – drinking water.”
De Bruyn said the municipality suffered from a confusion of priorities, pushing ahead with plans to change its name while claiming that it had no money to spend on the water treatment works.
The health department report, presented to the council’s community services and planning committee on April 17, said: “It can be concluded that, though there could be a multitude of issues that could contribute to the rise in diarrhoea cases during this period, and the consequential deaths, the most probable contributing factor could be ascribed to the microbiological water quality that did not meet the standards, together with the way it is kept inside houses.”
Linda Page, a spokeswoman for the department of water affairs, said a committee had been formed to “get to the bottom” of what had caused the deaths of the babies.