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Jail or fines coming for sewage pollution of waterways, deputy minister warns municipal officials

Jail or fines coming for sewage pollution of waterways, deputy minister warns municipal officials
Julia Evans
By Julia Evans
18 Mar 2025
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‘Once you know you’re going to jail, maybe your sense of urgency will be awakened,’ says Deputy Minister of Water and Sanitation Sello Seitlholo.

Standing by the Crocodile River in Hartbeespoort, where sewage pollution fuels invasive aquatic plants, Deputy Minister of Water and Sanitation Sello Seitlholo addressed the media at the launch of a biological control agent on Monday, 17 March.

“The reason we are dealing with these invasive alien plants is because of the damage caused over the years,” he said. “Wastewater treatment infrastructure was not maintained, not prioritised in terms of operation and maintenance, and not managed by suitably qualified people.”

Seitlholo said that with a National Water Amendment Bill in the pipeline, the department could soon go directly after individuals such as the municipal manager or mayor.

Read more: Addressing the water crisis in SA

The Bill, introduced in November 2023, means the government will be able to hold individuals personally liable for water pollution offences. This means municipal managers and mayors could face fines or jail if their municipalities fail to maintain wastewater treatment works and polluting water systems.

“Once you know you’re going to jail, maybe your sense of urgency will be awakened,” Seitlholo said. 

“If there is pollution, the mayor or the municipal manager must carry the personal liability, particularly if we go to court, and we win. Somebody has to take responsibility.”

He referred to his department’s  2023 Green Drop Report, which found nearly two-thirds (64%) of the country’s sewage and wastewater treatment works were at “high or critical risk” of discharging partially treated or untreated water into rivers.

For decades, the government has been battling alien invasive aquatic plants like water hyacinth and common salvinia in Hartbeespoort Dam. 

Excessive nutrient levels


The Crocodile River is eutrophic, with excessive nutrient levels from sewage, agricultural runoff and industrial waste. This creates the perfect conditions for invasive plants to thrive. The primary culprits are malfunctioning municipal wastewater treatment works, such as the nearby Percy Steward Wastewater Treatment Works, which allows raw sewage to enter the river.

Without addressing this, removing invasive plants will be an endless cycle. Seitlholo said that while the Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS) could issue directives to municipalities to fix their wastewater treatment works, legal action became necessary when they failed to act.

The problem: if a municipality is charged and found guilty of polluting a water source, the only repercussion is a fine, and as Seitlholo pointed out, you can’t send an entire municipality to jail.

Dr Ferrial Adam, executive director of WaterCAN, said these fines were paid from municipal budgets, meaning taxpayer money – intended for service delivery and plant maintenance.

“If you look at environmental law, you either pay a fine or go to jail, or both,” Adam said. “But jail time is always avoided, and the fine comes from money that should be spent on us, the taxpayers.”

“The second thing is, you then leave the people who cause this nonsense in their positions.”

Current legislation does not hold individuals accountable – only municipalities as entities.

For example, in April 2023, the Bethal Regional Court fined the Govan Mbeki Local Municipality R150-million for violating environmental laws. Similarly, the Balfour Magistrate’s Court fined the Dipaleseng Local Municipality R160-million for discharging untreated sewage into water sources between 2018 and 2023.

Typically, fines paid by municipalities go to the National Treasury. However, in a precedent-setting decision last November, R120-million of the fine was earmarked specifically for repairing dysfunctional wastewater infrastructure.

Read more: Vaal sewage torrent sees record R120m fine for Mpumalanga municipality

“Now that is what has to come from the municipality’s own budget,” Seitlholo told Daily Maverick. “But the fundamental flaw with that as well, is that money does not come to us as the Department of Water and Sanitation.

“It’s literally a directive by the court of law to say, in order for you to address this problem, you need to invest this much,” he said. “Many municipalities are in contempt of court because they just don’t have the money.”

He proposed a specific fund within the DWS to receive fines from municipalities and directly address water pollution issues.

The new amendment Bill proposes penalties of up to R1-million for first-time offenders or R10-million for repeat offenders, along with potential prison terms of five to 10 years. Courts could also order the recovery of costs for pollution damage, including rehabilitation expenses.

“The new amendment, to actually hold people accountable, is something we like, and it’s something that we’ve been calling for as well,” said WaterCAN’s Adam from waterCAN, a community action network under the Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa) umbrella. 

Adam was referring to criminal charges laid by WaterCAN in July 2023 against the City of Johannesburg and its municipal managers, including current municipal manager Floyd Brink.

The National Water Amendment Bill had its deadline extended to 1 March 2024. Stakeholders, including AgriSA and the Centre for Environmental Rights, have submitted feedback. It is still under review and must be approved by the State Law Advisor, a Cabinet committee, the full Cabinet, and Parliament before being signed by the President. Its implementation timeline remains uncertain.

‘Municipalities – the proverbial spoiled brat’


Seitlholo criticised the lack of accountability in local government, where municipalities expect bailouts despite mismanagement.

“In South Africa, we’ve undermined the developmental role of local government,” he said. “We hand out grants without ensuring they are spent correctly. Municipalities have become the proverbial spoiled brat – whenever they mess up, someone bails them out.”

He called for municipalities to share the financial burden of managing water pollution instead of relying entirely on the DWS.

“We’re not going to keep spending R22-million a year physically removing hyacinth from Hartbeespoort Dam while municipalities do nothing,” he said. “It’s nonsense.”

The polluter-pays principle


Seitlholo stressed that municipalities weren’t the only polluters. “We know there’s agricultural runoff. We know that the mining industries … we’ve got people who are really getting away with murder,” he said.

Enforcing the polluter-pays principle remains a challenge, primarily due to a lack of data.

“We need to identify polluters and trace specific chemicals back to industries, municipalities, or mines, but we haven’t been able to do that,” Seitlholo admitted. Accountability was another issue. “For the past nine months, we haven’t gone after industries and mining companies, and that’s unsustainable.”

He emphasised that the ultimate responsibility for managing and protecting water resources fell on the DWS. DM

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