Hammanskraal residents taken aback by Ramaphosa’s “boil water” gaffe

PHUTI MOSOMANE

President Cyril Ramaphosa’s unsolicited advice to the residents of Hammanskraal to ‘boil the water’ before consumption must have come back to bite him when they retorted by asking “with what electricity?”

Ramaphosa was addressing the residents while he was on a walkabout with Water and Sanitation Minister Senzo Mchunu and Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi following the cholera outbreak that has claimed over 20 lives in the area.

The residents told Ramapohosa that they lost loved ones because they were unable to ‘boil water” given constant and longer hours of load shedding.

In response, he told them that the provision of clean quality water is their right to exercise but both the provincial and local governments have failed them because a R295 million tender to upgrade the Rooiwal Water Treatment Plant was awarded but only 68% of the work was done.

Ramaphosa conceded that alarm bells were sounded by