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We’re endeavouring on amending the National Water Act. – Water and Sanitation deputy minister, Isaac Seitlholo.

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Sizwe sama Yende

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The Department of Water and Sanitation will lobby parliament to amend the law to hold mayors and municipal managers personally liable for water pollution.

Deputy Minister Isaac Seitlholo recently told the Portfolio Committee on Water and Sanitation that the National Water Act will have to be amended to hold municipal leaders accountable for water pollution.

More that 60% of water treatment plants in South Africa are in a poor state - discharged polluted water to the environment that leads to contamination water resources, soil, and food, and put the public’s health at risk.

The poor state is due to ageing infrastructure and lack of maintenance.

The courts have been handing down hefty sentences to municipalities found to be violating environmental laws.

“When the department does take a water services authority or municipality to court, it is viewed as a juristic person and as such there’s no personal liability to a mayor or municipal manager in terms of having to carry personal costs,” Seitlholo said.

“We’re endeavouring on amending the National Water Act,” he added.

There is a clause in the National Water Amendment Bill that provides that municipal managers (and corporate directors) may be convicted, and potentially sent to prison, for water pollution offences committed by the entities they represent. The bill was released for public comment in November 2023.

A few municipalities in Mpumalanga have been fined heavily in recent years.

In April 2024, the Mpumalanga High Court ordered the Nkomazi Local Municipality to urgently take remedial steps to stop the raw sewerage spills.

The court ruled that the Nkomazi municipality should immediately fix the causes of the spillages, remedy the effects of the pollution caused, and rehabilitate the affected areas.

On November 19 2024, the Balfour Magistrate Court imposed a R160 milllion fine against the Dipaleseng Municipality after pleading guilty to charges of causing significant pollution to the environment between December 2018 to August 2023.

The municipality allegedly allowed the disposal of raw blood sewage sludge, affluent or raw and untreated sewerage with high amounts of Faecal Coliform and E. coli into various water sources, including the Suikerbostant River, Gasteplaas Dam, Vlakfontein Farm Wastewater Treatment Works.

On April 10 2024, the Bethal Regional Court fined the Govan Mbeki Local Municipality R150 million on five counts of contravening the National Environmenhtal Waste Management Act and the National Water Act.

The court suspended R40 million of the R160 million fine for a period of five years on conditions that the municipality did not contravene Section 49 A of the National Environmental Management Act of 2000 and Section 151 of National Water Act 36 of 1998 or commit any other offences of which pollution is an element during the period of suspension.

In June 2022,  the Lydenburg Magistrate’s Court handed the Thaba Chweu Local Municipality a R10 million fine after its manager, Siphiwe Matsi, ignored complaints about sewage left to spill in the Dorps River.