DA wins judgment on sewage crisis, while ActionSA grimaces

ACTIONSA president Herman Mashaba expressed his displeasure on Wednesday upon discovering that the Pietermaritzburg High Court judgment he had hurried from Durban to attend was not related to his party's case, but rather to an application filed by the DA.

- BONGANI HANS

In 2022 and 2023, respectively, ActionSA and DA launched two separate applications against the eThekwini Municipality for failing to address sewer spillages that had polluted local rivers and beaches, thereby placing the health of tourists and residents at risk from consuming water contaminated with E.coli.

The Pietermaritzburg High Court favoured the DA's application on Wednesday by finding that the city's failure to manage the situation, which had led to repeated closure of the beaches, was unconstitutional and unlawful.

The court found that the city was in breach of various Environmental Management Acts, the National Water Act, and the Waste Act.

The court also declared that the city's operation of its wastewater treatment works in nine parts of the municipality was unlawful and without valid water use licences.

The court, therefore, gave the city one month to weekly publicise E.coli readings on its website, social media, and public notice boards placed on beaches.

It also ordered that the city should, within two months of the order's release date, file an under-oath report and documents on how it intends to address all its non-compliances with the law.