The personal assistant of acting eThekwini Mayor Fawzia Peer was rushed to hospital on Thursday after apparently consuming water and falling ill.

Peer told News24 on Thursday that she had heard from staff that her assistant had collapsed after drinking water.

“Yes, that is what I am hearing.

“I am also hearing that she was not well since the morning. There are all sorts of stories. I do not know what is true,” Peer told News24.

Her assistant, Hazel Pillay, was taken to hospital via ambulance earlier in the day after collapsing in the office, the Sunday Tribune and TimesLive reported.

Pillay’s illness comes a day after Peer received the results of tests conducted on drinking water she consumed during a council meeting last month. Peer herself feared she was the target of poisoning after complaining that the water smelt of paraffin.

“The speaker sent an email saying it is clear.”

Peer was however sceptical of the results.

“I am not sure how it is clear when four other people smelt it at the meeting and said it smelt like paraffin. The chief whip was sitting next to me, asked me to spit it out because the smell was so bad. At that point, I had already taken a gulp in.”

She said she would not comment on Pillay’s illness.

“I am not going to say much about this because I haven’t spoke to her and I don’t know what really happened.”

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