Press Statement by – Litesia Van Der Walt DA Councillor in Chief Albert Luthuli Local Municipality
- Residents of Groenvlei in Chief Albert are subjected to sewer flowing into their households.
- The municipality is failing to resolve this crisis.
- We have invited the Commission to come and assess this sewer.
20 July 2026
Release: Immediate
The DA in Chief Albert Luthuli invites the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) to come assess sewer overflow on Hospital Street in Groenvlei.
This comes after the Commission informed the DA that the municipality had a maintenance plan to address the sewer.
Over the past few months, the municipality and Commission have shown disregard to residents of this area as the Commission failed to thoroughly conduct oversight and hold the municipality accountable for its negligence.
On the other hand, senior officials in the municipality keep on shifting responsibility amongst themselves while the sewer continues to flow into households in this area.
During an oversight visit, a resident complained that the sewer flows directly into his borehole and contaminates water that is meant for consumption.
Last year, the municipality issued a media statement stating that they have installed a “new, upgraded manhole and conducted critical repairs to the affected sewer line in Groenvlei.”
At the time, the municipality labelled this as a proactive measure targeted at the sewage spill and sought to restore functionality.
Since then, we have been monitoring the situation and we have established that there is nothing proactive in this area. This goes to show that the municipality’s statement misled the public and the media.
The municipality’s failure to act constitutes not only a collapse in service delivery but also a violation of Section 24 of the Constitution, which states that everyone has the right to an environment that is not harmful to their health or well-being.
The DA will continue to monitor progress on site and ensure that remedial work is completed to standard. We call on residents to continue reporting service failures, and we assure them that we will never cease in our efforts to secure real and lasting solutions.
For media enquiries:
Litesia Van Der Walt
DA Councillor Albert Luthuli Local Municipality
081 089 9851