Landfill site audit: 81,5% of sites do not meet minimum standards
13 July 2022
AfriForum today released the organisation’s annual landfill audit report, after landfill sites in towns and cities where AfriForum's branches are located were audited earlier this year. This report will be discussed with Barbara Creecy, Minister of Environmental Affairs, as an ongoing conversation that started already in 2019 and will also be handed over to the Green Scorpions for further investigation. Only 18,5% (30 of 162) of these landfills meet the minimum requirements of the National Environmental Management: Waste Act (No. 59 of 2008).
By law, a landfill site must meet certain requirements. A list of 33 questions was compiled with these minimum standards as a guideline and these questions were used to conduct the landfill audit.
“The poor percentage can be attributed to various problems experienced by municipalities that lead to the poor and illegal management of our landfill sites. Misappropriation of funds, poor maintenance and a lack of competent personnel are just some of the problems we face daily. The biggest problem is that there are officials in municipalities who do not have the will and/or the knowledge to manage the sites,” says Lambert de Klerk, Manager of Environmental Affairs at AfriForum.
“The obstacles are endless, such as the fact that there are officials in municipalities who know that their poor management has no repercussions for them. It is worrying to know that most landfill sites in South Africa do not even meet the minimum requirements, but at the same time it is understandable as no municipalities are held accountable for the mismanagement.”