DA welcomes R200 million pollution fine for ANC-led Govan Mbeki municipality

11 April 2024

The DA welcomes the R200 million fine imposed on the ANC-led Govan Mbeki municipality, related to the pollution of local rivers and natural ecosystems under ANC control. Whilst the local ANC Mayor has attempted to shift the blame onto failing infrastructure, it is clear that the main reason for the unprecedented scale of pollution and degradation is in fact the ANC-led government. This is sadly the case in many areas of the country under ANC control.

In 2022, members of the DA visited Mogalakwena in Limpopo and laid a charge at the police station against that municipality for similar issues relating to the pollution of rivers. Other charges have also been laid by the DA in KwaZulu Natal, where untreated raw sewage runs freely into rivers and estuaries, and where the majority of the water treatment facilities do not work properly.

Under the ANC-led government, eThekwini releases 77% of all sewage through marine outfalls and into estuaries and much of it is poorly treated. The ANC simply does not care that local residents are forced to swim in oceans full of sewage and rivers teeming with e-coli.

The ANC has neither the will, nor the capacity to keep our rivers and oceans clean. While forward-thinking governments in the DA-led Western Cape are embarking on upgrades to water treatment facilities and making use of new and innovative river cleaning initiatives, areas under ANC control continue to slide further backward into a sludge of incompetence and maladministration. Now is the time to rescue our environment and our country from the ANC.

Issued by Dave Bryant, DA Shadow Minister of Forestry, Fisheries and Environment, 11 April 2024