By Lebone Rodah Mosima
The Pietermaritzburg High Court on Thursday ruled against the eThekwini Municipality, ordering it to take urgent steps to address the ongoing sewage crisis that has polluted rivers and beaches across Durban in KwaZulu-Natal.
The Democratic Alliance (DA) welcomed the judgment, which followed a court application it brought accusing the municipality for failing to act decisively despite years of sewage spills.
The spills have led to repeated beach closures, environmental degradation and financial losses for local businesses.
“The High Court ruling compels the municipality to implement the following steps, among others, to protect the public’s right to a safe and healthy environment,” the DA said in a statement.
These include publishing weekly E. coli readings for all public beaches on the municipality’s website, social media platforms and at beach sites; urgently implementing an action plan to repair and maintain sewer infrastructure; and reporting back to the court on progress made.
The municipality was also ordered to communicate widely with communities living and working near rivers and beaches about water-related hazards and pollution.
“For far too long, the political leadership of eThekwini has taken the public for granted and ignored countless complaints regarding sewer overflows into our rivers and oceans,” the DA said.
The party said it had been left with no option but to seek legal intervention after repeated requests for urgent remedial action were ignored.
It added that it remains committed to ensuring the sewage crisis is completely eradicated and to restoring the city’s safety and environment.
ActionSA also welcomed the ruling, describing it as a significant victory for residents in holding “the eThekwini Municipality and implicated government departments accountable for the devastating sewage crisis”.
ActionSA leader Herman Mashaba said the party had moved beyond complaints by taking legal action as early as November 2022.
“The pollution has effectively denied South Africans access to some of the country’s most important tourist beaches,” Mashaba said.
“These beaches belong to the people of South Africa, but for the past two to three years, South Africans have not had that opportunity, with sewage flowing directly into the sea.”
ActionSA KwaZulu-Natal provincial chairperson Zwakele Mncwango said that while the High Court heard ActionSA’s application alongside the DA’s case, it elected to deliver separate judgments.
Mncwango said the party is still awaiting a ruling on its own application, despite the relief granted to the DA mirroring what ActionSA originally sought.
He said it initiated legal action against the municipality in November 2022 to address what it described as “sustained violations of residents’ constitutionally enshrined rights to a safe and healthy environment, as well as their right to economic development”.
“As ActionSA has consistently argued, the eThekwini Municipality must comply with its legal obligations to repair and upgrade the severely dilapidated sewer infrastructure at the heart of this disaster,” Mncwango said.
“ActionSA is proud to have led this fight from the start on behalf of the residents of eThekwini.”
The party said it would continue to pursue accountability until the municipality fully repairs and upgrades the city’s sewer infrastructure and brings the crisis to an end.
INSIDE METROS