DA and ActionSA in court over sewage crisis

INSTEAD of uniting in their legal fight against eThekwini Municipality's failure to repair the city's health hazard sewage infrastructure, the DA and ActionSA were at each other's throats.

- BONGANI HANS

The two parties took the municipality to court over the sewage crisis.

The matter was heard at the Pietermaritzburg High Court on Thursday and Friday and was adjourned after the full Bench reserved the judgment.

ActionSA, in its affidavit filed in 2022, claimed that the municipality had failed to maintain and repair its sewage infrastructure, which would have prevented untreated effluent from spilling into rivers, the ocean and beaches, while in 2023 the DA lodged its legal documents.

DA councillor Thabani Mthethwa said his party used the court action to expose the municipality's failure to deal with sewerage challenges.

"It was only after court papers were filed that the municipality began to make superficial attempts to address the crisis, clearly demonstrating that without pressure from the DA, no meaningful steps would have been taken," said Mthethwa.

The municipality is yet to respond to questions sent to its spokesperson, Gugu Sisilana.

However, the DA’s KwaZulu-Natal chairperson and Minister of Public Works and Infrastructure Dean Macpherson issued a damning press statement on Friday, alleging that the ActionSA’s legal team had gone to court "unprepared". He alleged that the ActionSA’s lawyers could not answer "basic" questions from the court.