Loaded for Bear: Shameful hat-trick - three SA World Heritage Sites are threatened by sewage

Robben Island during a 12 hour night vigil to pay homage to Nelson Mandela, Robert Sobukwe and Albertina Sisulu on December 05. 2018 in Cape Town, South Africa. The Robben Island Museum held the vigil to mark the conclusion of a year dedicated to celebrating the 100th anniversary of the births of Nelson Mandela and Albertina Sisulu, as well as the birthday of former PAC leader Robert Sobukwe. (Photo: Gallo Images / Netwerk24 / Jaco Marais)

By Ed Stoddard

21 Oct 2024

South Africa has failed in its obligations as a signatory of the Unesco Convention to protect its World Heritage Sites.

No less than three Unesco World Heritage Sites in South Africa - the Cradle of Humankind, the Vredefort Dome and Robben Island - are threatened by sewage pollution.

This hat-trick of shame is probably a world record, an odious podium finish that reeks of state failure and one that will make South Africa a skunk in the hallways of Unesco.

President Cyril Ramaphosa thrust the issue back into the news cycle last week when he urged officials to stop the flow of sewage through the Cradle of Humankind, a Unesco World Heritage Site that is a treasure trove of ancient fossils of humanity’s ancestors.

Read more: Sewage is wrecking South Africa’s Cradle of Humankind, Ramaphosa says

We reported on this issue last year, and so have other media houses. The Percy Steward Wastewater Treatment Works operated by a demonstrably incompetent Mogale City administration has collapsed and is spewing untreated sewage into the Blaaubankspruit, which flows past the famed Sterkfontein Caves.

Read more: A Sewer Runs Through It — trout, barbel and the microcosm of state failure in the Cradle of Humankind

A year after, it seems nothing has been done and Mogale City officials will forever be tarnished in South African history by their negligence, which has fouled a site of immense importance to the study of pre-history.

“This situation poses a serious risk to human health, agriculture, economic activity and the environment,” Ramaphosa said last week.

That was stating the obvious. A complex ecosystem which once had thriving populations of large- and small-scale yellow fish, frogs, bird species, monitor lizards and otters has been trashed, with huge economic damage inflicted on local businesses that rely on tourism.

“President Ramaphosa has written to Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi, urging him to engage with the municipality under Section 139 of the Constitution,” the Presidency said last week.

“The President urged the Premier to work with the Municipality in ensuring that all measures are taken to urgently address the situation. Key amongst these measures is to ensure that the Percy Steward Wastewater Treatment [Works] is repaired and restored to full functionality.”

Shoes washed up on shore at Robben Island Museum (RIM) on Saturday, 14 September(Photo: Lisakanya Venna)

A general view of the Cradle of Humankind Heritage World Site on December 22, 2020 in Johannesburg, South Africa, along R114 road. The tourist attraction was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1999. (Photo: Gallo Images / Sydney Seshibedi)

TheVredefort Dome is an ancient meteorite impact crater. You can only really see the extent of the crater on a topographical map of the area, but this view of the Vaal River , 30 km outside Potchefstroom, is spectacular enough. Feature text available. (Photo: Gallo Images / GO! / Lawrette McFarlane)

We’ll see if Lesufi, a political operator of note, rises to that fly. This unfolding disaster is mostly a local government issue, but the sewage has also flowed under Lesufi’s watch.

And it’s mainly the ANC’s mess. The party has been mostly in charge of the municipality for the past couple of decades. The DA had a minority government from 2021 until it was ousted by an ANC-EFF coalition last year.

“Since 2019, DWS has issued multiple notices and directives to Mogale City Municipality under the National Water Act, instructing it to address the sewage pollution. However, these directives have been ignored, prompting the DWS to lay criminal charges against the municipality for sewage pollution in August 2023,” the Presidency also said last week.

So, Mogale City’s administration has been acting with impunity and holding up a middle finger to the public it is supposed to serve.

World Heritage shame

And it’s not just the Cradle of Humankind that is suffering the indignity of being a World Heritage Site tainted by excrement.

The Vredefort Dome, which was declared a World Heritage Site in 2005, is also in the kak.

The Dome marks the site where a massive meteorite smashed into the Earth more than 2 billion years ago. It is the oldest such impact site yet found and is known as an astrobleme.

Approximately 260 people attended the Robben Island Museum (RIM) and Coca-Cola Peninsula Beverages (CCPB) International Coastal Clean-Up Day, including staff and Robben Island residents on Saturday, 14 September(Photo: Lisakanya Venna)

The Vaal River snakes through the Dome and it has for years been polluted by sewage discharge. When he was Finance Minister, the now late Tito Mboweni in 2018 called on the army to use its engineering expertise to address the problem.

Read more: Should the army be cleaning up South Africa’s rivers?

A report published in 2021 by the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) on Wednesday highlighted “kilolitres of untreated sewage entering the Vaal”.

Read more: Vaal River sewage contamination a crisis, human rights violation and liability to the state, commission finds

And the problem persists in the Vaal with cholera recently detected.

Then there is Robben Island, where Nelson Mandela spent most of his incarceration for standing up to the apartheid regime.

As my colleague Kristin Engel reported last week, sewage from Cape Town is being pumped into the ocean daily.

Read more: Cape Town fights uphill battle against ocean and waterway sewage spills

“Sewage-related impacts are affecting the World Heritage Site of Robben Island. We have recently shown that endangered African penguin eggs on Robben Island, as well as the other two nesting sites at Stoney Point and Simon’s Town are contaminated with sewage-related pharmaceuticals,” Leslie Petrik, Emeritus Professor of Chemistry at the University of the Western Cape, told me.

Against this soiled backdrop, it is of more than passing interest to note that South Africa is a signatory to the 1972 World Heritage Convention.

“The Convention sets out the duties of States Parties in identifying potential sites, and their role in protecting and preserving them. By signing the Convention, each country pledges to conserve not only the World Heritage Sites situated on its territory, but also to protect its national heritage,” Unesco states on its website.

So, South Africa has pledged to conserve its World Heritage Sites, and befouling three of them with sewage is, I would guess, a glaring violation of that commitment.

Unesco also says that: “The Convention stipulates the obligation of States Parties to report regularly to the World Heritage Committee on the state of conservation of their World Heritage properties.”

One can just imagine the reports from South Africa.

“It’s all good. Well, aside from the small matter of sewage pollution running through two of them and washing up on the shore of a third. But other than that …”

To paraphrase the late, great US satirical writer Kurt Vonnegut, the excrement would be hitting the air conditioning at Unesco’s offices.

The Convention also says that: “... the duty of ensuring the identification, protection, conservation, presentation and transmission to future generations of the cultural and natural heritage ... situated on its territory, belongs primarily to that State.”

The South African state has been an epic failure on this front and the private sector will likely need to lend a helping hand to resolve it.

The current government-business partnership initiatives aimed at tackling the power, logistics and crime crises offer a model in this regard.

It’s a national shame that sites of such scientific and cultural significance are being treated with withering contempt. South Africa’s reputation as a custodian of these sites is literally being flushed down the toilet. DM

Categories:

Tags:

DM is much better if you are signed in...

Business Maverick

World Heritage shame