Rugby KOd by e-Coli

26 October 2022

Many readers will be familiar with the inelegant term "gyppoguts." It is the informal name for the diarrhoea that tourists and visitors often get when they travel to certain well-known countries. Because those countries are mostly friends of ours, I will refrain from naming them but travellers understand that in some parts of the world, it is not safe to eat salads or uncooked food, to drink the water, or even to brush your teeth using tap water. Bottled water is essential and swimming in some rivers, dams or the sea is a big no-no. It seems South Africa might be joining that group of countries.

To the shock of rugby fans and the consternation of many in our country, we suffered the humiliation of having big-ticket rugby matches – Sharks versus Ulster and Emirates Lions versus Glasgow Warriors – postponed at the last minute. The reason? Most if not all of the 50 visiting rugby players, staying at top hotels in uMhlanga, have been afflicted with gastroenteritis.

Photographs published last week showed raw sewerage floating on the Umgeni River in eThekwini on its way to the sea. More than half of the 28 beaches north and south of Durban are closed because the water is unsafe. Durban's sewerage system has almost completely collapsed with 80% of its sewerage purification plants out of order. Despite this, the municipal spokesperson states that the City's water is clean and safe to drink.

Other reports indicate that it will take about R135 billion to put the infrastructure right. The damage to the infrastructure is not just the result of the floods; it has been neglected for many years. Clearly, the City and the neighbouring local authorities do not have resources of this magnitude, and the KZN Province and the Government will have to step in. Writing in Rapport on Sunday, Antoinette Slabbert reported that despite government promises, the money promised has not been forthcoming.

Has anyone in authority considered the effect on the reputation of South Africa by reports of this kind? And what about local and international tourism? That season is about to start and it is reported that international visitors to Durban in 2017 totalled 339007 and this dropped by 82% to 58271 last year, mainly because the whole infrastructure of the City has become so neglected.

And guess where the Minister of Tourism was this week? Minister Lindiwe Sisulu, whose previous portfolio (from 2014 to 2018 and again from 2019 to 2021) was Human Settlements, Water, and Sanitation and thus directly responsible for the current water crisis afflicting our country, was promoting herself at the prison where big-time ANC Northern Cape crook, John Block is incarcerated. In her list of priorities, tourism and water and sewerage ranked far behind attempting to grab some support for her presidential ambitions from people who inexplicably remain loyal to Mr. Block. She was denied entry to the prison (because she failed to follow the correct procedures), allowing her to make immoderate statements and accusations about human rights violations. This drama obscured her failure to take a firm grip on her ministerial responsibilities.

Many South Africans would like to know what the Government in general and the tourism minister, in particular, plan to do to reassure potential tourists (upon whom hundreds of thousands of our workers depend) that our water is safe and that they are welcome to come to one of the most beautiful and interesting countries in the world but rapidly sinking to Third World conditions.

Douglas Gibson is a former opposition chief whip and ambassador to Thailand. 

This article first appeared in The Star newspaper.