Ngwathe Municipality blamed sabotage and loadshedding after claims by AfriForum that water samples taken from the Vaal River in Parys on Tuesday tested positive for cholera.

This comes after the Free State confirmed that Madikeldi Sebeho, 33, died after testing positive for cholera.

Sebeho died at the Parys Hospital, where she was admitted after being transferred from a local clinic in Vredefort last week. 

On Sunday, the number of people who have succumbed to cholera in Hammanskraal had increased to 23.

Mayor Victoria De Beer-Mthombeni said they were aware of the contamination of the Vaal River.

She said Parys and Vredefort received their water from the river.

"As the municipality, we have been doing a lot to ensure that we supply clean water. We were alerted about a manhole that was suspected to have been the one contaminating the river. We then deployed our team... [where] we found that rocks were thrown into the manhole that could have caused the spillages into the river," said De Beer-Mthombeni.

"Apart from that, our challenge of loadshedding. We have also identified that since our manholes near the river were operated by electricity, when power was switched off, there is an overflow. As an immediate action, we have placed a generator that would be switched on whenever there was loadshedding."

Apart from the spillages, the mayor said loadshedding was hitting hard on the municipal coffers.

"We are forced to do maintenance and unexpected costs. It affects us because our financial state doesn't look good. This goes deep into our pockets. We are doing our best despite our financial challenges to battle the current (diarrhoea) outbreak. 

"It has not been officially determined that our water causes cholera. We are aware of AfriForum's samplings and conduct our own processes. It is possible that since we are downstream of the river, the contamination could be coming from other provinces."

De Beer-Mthombeni added that the blame can't be put only on the municipality.

"This shows that this outbreak is spreading to other parts of the country. It is no longer an issue of Ngwathe and Hammanskraal. We will embark on programmes in our municipality to remind our communities about hygienic processes before consuming water.

"We will continue attending to all sewer spillages and conduct our regular water samplings. We urge people to continue boiling their water before consumption," said De Beer-Mthombeni.

AfriForum earlier reported that an accredited laboratory took water samples at different locations under the supervision of a water specialist.

The first water sample taken at the outlet of the waterworks was not contaminated with cholera. 

The second water sample taken from a residential house in Parys tested negative for cholera, but was infected with E. coli.

"The third water sample was taken in the Vaal River, approximately 10 metres downstream from a manhole pouring sewage into the river for some time. This very water sample is contaminated with cholera and E. coli.

"AfriForum is still waiting for the official results, but the laboratory has already notified the municipality of the results due to the seriousness of the matter.

"It is extremely worrying that the withdrawal point for Vredefort's water is only a kilometre from the sewage spill. It is precisely in Vredefort where there are also confirmed cases of cholera and where a resident died from this virus.

"This information further proves that the Vaal River is indeed infected with cholera. There are several places where the raw sewage flows into the river due to infrastructure that is burnt out or is not available, load shedding and the fact that there is no emergency assistance such as generators or emergency pumps,” said AfriForum's manager of environmental affairs Lambert de Klerk.

"AfriForum and Save Ngwathe appealed to residents of Ngwathe not to drink tap water before it has been boiled."