SAVE said they are pleased that
the Minister of Finance, Tito Mboweni, recognises the need for urgent action and announced the
deployment of the SANDF to deal with this national disaster. “The key to success is speedy
availability of the required funding from National Treasury.”
The Gauteng Province’s partial administration of Emfuleni Municipality was announced
in June. SAVE then met with the Gauteng COGTA team and provided a list of the emergency
repairs required. There was little action until the last weeks of September when work started slowly and a tender was issued for civil work in October.
Raw sewage has continued to gush into the Vaal River since January, SAVE said in it’s statement, adding that this morning, SAVE was informed
of yet another new major spillage into the Klip River at Vereeniging from a dysfunctional
pump station.
“We trust the intervention of the SANDF will result in speedy resolution of the infrastructural failures that have caused the pollution. However, and that National Treasury will support these efforts with the required funding without any further delays. This, together with engineering expertise, sufficient manpower and a sense of urgency to repair and replace broken infrastructure is the only way to stop the sewage pollution crisis, which is causing environmental devastation and abuse of human rights,” SAVE said.
“The deployment of the army will be most useful in preventing theft and vandalism of municipal infrastructure. This criminal activity is rife and has contributed to the crisis. Thieves killed a security guard at the Rietspruit Waste Water Treatment Plant when they were caught in the act of attempting to steal cables recently. The medium and long term plans for the much-needed development of new infrastructure to cater for housing development also need to be prioritised,” SAVE said.
“Plans presented at the Human Rights Commission were vague and lacked essential information such as implementation and completion dates. The Government team at the HRC enquiry admitted that there was no available budget for this project, estimated at R5 billion (and growing) for the completion of the long term Sedibeng Regional Sewage System (SRSS) project,” SAVE said.
“Mention was made of approaching the new infrastructural fund announced by the President recently.”
The SRSS will facilitate the Department of Human Settlement’s expansive housing programme where thousands of houses are planned but for which Emfuleni does not have the capacity to provide service delivery. It will also stimulate economic growth and allow further development of the area. The SRSS extends beyond the construction of two modules at the Sebokeng Waste Water Ttreatment Plant.”
In a TV interview recently, Gauteng MEC: COGTA, Mr. Uhuru Moiloa appeared to believe that this construction work would deal with all the ills of Emfuleni’s sanitation system. In fact, this expansion is but a small part of the SRSS. Mr. Moiloa also assured viewers of the TV news programe (channel 195) that the current situation with respect to the Vaal River sewage pollution “is not a crisis”.
But Minister Tito Mboweni sees it clearly as a crisis, says SAVE.
SAVE says the rehabilitation of the Vaal River, specifically the Klip and Rietspruit tributariesm which have become sewer pits, need be dealt with as a matter of urgency, especially in view of the serious health and food security implications of this toxic silt.
“SAVE will monitor progress closely, but at this stage, before we know more detail, it would be premature to go to court. If we are not satisfied that that there is real and speedy action to confront the pollution problems, the papers will be finalised, and we will be back in court.”
How this ties in with SAVE’s court case:
• In February SAVE obtained an order compelling the Emfuleni Local Municipality to prevent ongoing sewage pollution of the Vaal River, and if the municipality was not able to do so within the seven days, to provide a report on when and how it would. The task is obviously massive and well beyond the capability of the Municipality.
• SAVE was about to re-enrol the court action in June to extend our court order to the national government as the state of the River and the surrounding environments is nothing short of a national disaster, when the national and provincial governments intervened by placing the Municipality under financial administration, and effectively taking charge of the situation.
• SAVE met the Premier’s task team in July and were given assurances that national and provincial government were indeed in charge and had plans to solve the pollution problem, and that national Treasury would provide the necessary funding.
• Before the plan (only brief details were given to SAVE) could be implemented, a formal plan had to be prepared by the Treasury’s Municipal Financial Recovery Service. This plan had to be produced within 90 days of the date upon which the Municipality was placed under administration. The plan was produced in mid-September and advertised for public comment. The comment period has closed, and the plan is being finalised. SAVE commented and was assured that its comments would be taken into account.
• Despite all the plans put in place, SAVE remained concerned that there was no tangible plan to put a large team to work, the Municipality being hopelessly under-resourced, and if private contractors were to be employed, the huge delays that would occur, with tender process, challenges to tenders and the like. For this reason, it was finalising court papers that would join the Premier, the MEC Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, and the MEC Finance to the action.
• Again, government has pre-empted the court action, as the deployment of the SANDF to undertake the necessary work provides a credible solution if they are able to get busy on the task immediately. It is obviously very assuring that the Minister of Finance has “re-prioritised” funds to allocate to the recovery plan.
• The deployment of the SANDF and the action taken needs to be carefully monitored and if necessary SAVE will return to court
