On October 23, a deadly cholera epidemic in South Africa's KwaZulu-Natal province claimed its 31st victim. More than 3600 cases have been reported since the outbreak began in mid-August.
On October 24, national spokesperson for the National Health and Allied Workers' Union (NEHAWU) Moloanta Molaba suggested that the spread of the disease was aided by the African National Congress government's economic rationalist policies. Molaba said that the government's conservative Growth Employment and Redistribution (GEAR) economic policy's strategy for social services required poor people to pay for previously free and clean water.
"After the drought in 1993, the government installed communal taps in the now cholera-infected areas. The water was used by local villagers and outlying communities, and was free", noted Molaba.
"In August, the department of water affairs, which is gradually phasing in the program, gave control of the water supply to the transitional local council in these cholera areas. Soon after, they introduced the cost recovery system."
Molaba explained that poor rural communities could not afford the service and began using water from polluted streams in the densely populated areas. "Barely a month without clean water, then there is a cholera outbreak", he said.
Molaba said the strategy of cost recovery for social services had been "notoriously imposed and driven by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund".
BY NORM DIXON