The South African government and the City of Tshwane must face a class action for the cholera outbreak in Hammanskraal and surrounds, which is the result of a decade-long water contamination problem. Officials can no longer be allowed to look the other way.

The Hammanskraal cholera outbreak might not be comparable to one of the worst cholera outbreaks in recent history, which occurred in Yemen in the Middle East, but it must be a national concern.

Hammanskraal has been experiencing a significant water-related health emergency for 10 years, which unfortunately has never received the attention it deserves. Issues with water quality in Hammanskraal have been widely reported and may have landed in the hands of leaders who have their heads deeply buried in the sand, like the proverbial ostrich.

Now, years later, vulnerable people are losing their lives and experiencing health complications owing to water that is not properly treated, resulting in what appears to be a rapid spread of cholera throughout Hammanskraal and possibly many neighbouring areas. The Hammanskraal water crisis should be treated as a national emergency as well as a humanitarian and human rights crisis.

Our incompetence as a country to take seriously the issue of water is now affecting the most vulnerable and previously disadvantaged. To wash hands with which water? Another opportunity has now presented itself for the so-called business people and quasi-entrepreneurs to roll out water tanks and trucks to the affected community and get rich...