Shongweni Landfill reopened after court lifts interdict
Following Judge Ploos van Amstel's decision, the UHA's interdict that was secured in April 2017 to stop the receipt, treatment and disposal of all waste is no longer in place.
THE Upper Highway community’s battle for clean air is far from over as KwaZulu-Natal High Court Judge Ploos van Amstel lifted the NPO’s interdict when he handed down his decision yesterday.
This means, the UHA’s interdict that was secured in April 2017 to stop the receipt, treatment and disposal of all waste is no longer in place.
A statement published by UHA further indicated that although the interdict has been lifted, EnviroServ’s licence remains suspended, subject to the conditions instated by the Minister of Environmental Affairs, Edna Molewa.
The minister’s revised conditions of the licence suspension is that only solid, inorganic waste containing no sulphur may be disposed of at the Shongweni site.
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UHA said this was only a “fraction” of the waste streams officially received at the Shongweni Landfill.
Speaking about the decision, Lauren Johnson, the founding director of the Upper Highway Air NPC, said, “The Court also found there was no evidence that metal containing waste, which is reactive and heat generating, will be received at the site. If it is, and causes increased emissions, there is no evidence it will not be stopped by the minister.”
“In addition, the court found that the DEA should be allowed to continuously scrutinise and supervise the operations at Shongweni for now and this was not the role of the court pending the litigation by UHA.”
EnviroServ spokesperson Thabiso Taaka said, “The company complied with the remediation plan – so much so that last December Environmental Affairs Minister Edna Molewa amended the conditions of both the suspension notice and compliance notice because she was satisfied with progress which had been made, and in so doing permitted EnviroServ to accept limited waste types.
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“Yesterday, in the KwaZulu-Natal High Court, Judge Ploos van Amstel dismissed the UHA interdict application, thereby allowing the Minister’s conditions to take effect and Shongweni can now accept certain waste streams.
“The landfill is ready to start accepting these waste streams and will resume operations shortly, under close supervision by the Department of Environmental Affairs. We are confident in our remediation measures implemented and are glad the court agreed,” said Taaka.
UHA is proceeding with the application to review the Minister’s decision and to direct further remediation measures as advised by UHA experts and monitoring.
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