Mbalula denies ANC is using cholera outbreak to try score votes

ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula has denied claims the ANC is using the cholera outbreak as an opportunity to score political points and campaign for votes. 

Mbalula visited Hammanskraal in Gauteng amid the rising death toll due to the outbreak. 

The health department confirmed the death toll stands at 26, with most cases reported in Gauteng. 

Mbalula denied claims he was using cholera to blame the DA for its failure to deal with service delivery problems.

“I know what the DA has done in Cape Town. They gave me a tough time to give trains back to the people. The mayor has been using politics around the matter.

“These things do not help. They affect the poorest of the poor. Can we for once put our differences aside and attend to what is a problem and forget there are elections coming?” he said.

Mbalula said ANC members who allegedly pocketed money meant for service delivery in Hammanskraal must be brought to book.

Health minister Dr Joe Phaahla said recent cholera incidents could be traced back to the cases of two sisters from Diepsloot, Johannesburg, who had travelled together by bus to Malawi in January and returned on January 30. 

The cases were reported by provincial authorities on February 5, he said.

Phaahla said the first reported case was a 56-year-old man originally from Giyani, Limpopo, who lives in Musina.

He said the epicentre of the current cholera outbreak is in Hammanskraal, Tshwane.

“In the seven days from May 17 to 23, 163 patients presented at Jubilee Hospital with diarrhoea and vomiting, giving an average of 23 patients per day. The number of deaths was 17 in seven days. In the subsequent seven days from May 24 30, the number reduced to 30 patients, with an average of four patients per day and two deaths.”

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