By Cllr. Mariette Preddy – DA Councillor in Nkomazi Local Municipality
The Democratic Alliance (DA) welcomes the SAHRC’s preliminary directive to Nkomazi municipality that they must halt all new developments in Malalane and Komatipoort until capacity challenges in their sewer systems have been adequately addressed.
In 2014, the DA approached the SA Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) to intervene in Nkomazi municipality after various sewage spillages and inadequate treatment of waste water were identified in Malalane and Komatipoort. This was after residents of these areas complained that their Constitutional right (Section 24) to a clean environment was violated by the municipality as it ignored sewer spillages and failed to adequately treat waste water.
By then, the municipality’s Nkomazi–Usuthu catchment managing agency acknowledged the problem, but claimed that they had no funds to address it. This prompted the DA to approach the Public Protector and the SAHRC.
The SAHRC released a preliminary report recently were they give a directive to the Manager of Nkomazi municipality, Dan Ngwenya, and the following departments: Water and Sanitation; Co-Operative Governance; Traditional Affairs; Human Settlements; Rural Development and Environmental affairs; and Nkomati-Usuthu catchment management agency – that they must halt all new developments in Malalane and Komatipoort until capacity challenges in Nkomazi sewer systems have been adequately addressed.
They were also ordered to do the following:
- To develop a Sanitation master plan and submit it to the Commission as soon as possible.
- They were also given three months to put securities in place to safeguard their sewer infrastructure which is currently open to vandalism.
- They must also develop a special unit which will investigate possible municipal employees’ wrongdoings in extension 8.
- Ensure that existing and new developed infrastructure meet the demands of the (to be) upgraded sewer network going forward.
- They must regular or routinely do maintenance of their existing sewer systems.
The DA will await a detailed plan from Dan Ngwenya, the municipal manager of Nkomazi, on steps that will be taken going forward as directed by the SAHRC.
If they fail to act within the next three months, the DA will go back to the SAHRC and ask them to hold the above departments in violation of Section 28 of the South Africa National Environmental Management Act (NEMA).
According to Section 28 of NEMA, failure to prevent and remedy the effects of environmental pollution, in the course of providing adequate sanitation to residents, goes with a R10 million fine or 10-years imprisonment.