| Summary |
In August 2000 South Africa was xperiencing one of the worst cholera epidemics in the countrys recent history. Initial reports of the cholera outbreak came from the largely rural and impoverished communities on the outskirts of the Ngwelezane Township, near the Empangeni town. The source of the epidemic was traced to the uMhlathuze River, also in the northern part of the KwaZulu-Natal Province. However by the end of the year 2000, the northern Kwa Zulu-Natal cholera outbreak had replicated itself in eight of South Africas nine provinces. |
| More Details |
Poverty was a common thread that ran through all the areas surrounding the Ngwelezane
Township from which the initial reports of the cholera outbreak were reported. The Madlebe
Tribal Authority stands in incongruent proximity to the industrialised heartland of the
KwaZulu-Natal province, its population shifting with the changing thirst for labour.
Unemployment is endemic and the majority of people live below internationally accepted
benchmarks of absolute poverty. The water-borne epidemic, however, was specifically
indicative of a serious failure of governments policy on water and sanitation provision.
The Department of Water Affairs and Forestry (DWAF) also concurred that there was a causal
relationship between the cholera outbreak and persistent poverty. However DWAFs overemphasis
on the poverty factor in the cholera outbreak tended to clear its own water policies
of any fault. DWAFs exposition on the cause of the cholera outbreak seemed to deliberately
omit factoring how its cost-recovery water policies impacted on the spread of the cholera
epidemic in the poverty stricken rural communities of Madlebe and the greater uThungulu
region. |
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