Vaal sewage torrent sees record R120m fine for Mpumalanga municipality

Dipaleseng municipal manager Lwazi Cindi. (Photo: LinkedIn profile)

20 Nov 2024

The six-year flow of raw sewage and industry effluent into the Vaal River and Vaal Dam from the Dipaleseng (Balfour) local municipality may be nearing an end at last after the municipality owned up to ‘dire neglect and mismanagement’ of the local wastewater treatment works.

The Dipaleseng municipality (represented by municipal manager Lwazi Cindi) has now been sentenced to a record fine of R160-million after pleading guilty to five criminal charges on Friday, 15 November in the Mpumalanga Regional Court, sitting in Balfour.

R40-million of the total fine was suspended for five years, resulting in an effective fine of R120-million – which has to be used exclusively for urgent repairs to at least three dysfunctional sewage treatment plants, substations and other wastewater infrastructure around Balfour, Kanini, Siyathemba, Grootvlei and Greylingstad.

Dipaleseng will also have to pay local resident Beauty Skhosana R400,000 in damages for the loss of several of her cattle that died or became sick after drinking polluted water or grazing on land contaminated by sewage and industrial effluent.

The municipality has to pay a further R600,000 jointly to the national Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS) and the Mpumalanga Department of Agriculture, Rural Development, Land and Environmental Affairs. This is to be used specifically to provide equipment and improve training and staff capacity for the Green Scorpions environmental management inspectorate.

The primary investigator in the latest prosecution was Green Scorpions and Mpumalanga agriculture department inspector Maanda Alidzulwi, who has also taken three other Mpumalanga local municipalities to court for similar offences over the past three years (Thaba Chweu, Govan Mbeki and Lekwa municipalities).

vaal sewage record fine Members of the investigation and prosecution team outside the Balfour Regional Court. They are (back from left): Maanda Alidzulwi (Mpumalanga agriculture department), Nkululeko Makam (Mpumalanga agriculture department), Philemon Shibambo (DWS), Tshilidzi Nndwamato (Mpumalanga agriculture department), Jabulani Siyaya (DWS) and (from front left) Musa Luhlanga (Mpumalanga agriculture department), Beauty Skosana (a complainant who lost several cattle from pollution), advocate B Cibangu (DPP), Xolile Mthethwa (Mpumalanga agriculture department) and Thandi Mopai (DWS). (Photo: Supplied)

While the latest fine ultimately comes out of the pockets of ratepayers (rather than from municipal officials) the court has endorsed several conditions of the plea and sentence agreement to ensure that long-neglected sewage infrastructure in Dipaleseng is funded, repaired and maintained.

Earlier this week, Deputy Minister of the national Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment Narend Singh lamented that such fines came from ratepayer or state funding and suggested that it might be time for exemplary action, including jail terms, for chief executives of private companies or senior municipal officials as fines were not always a sufficient deterrent for environmental crimes.

Read more: Mpumalanga municipality fined R70m for Vaal River sewage pollution

Nevertheless, no senior municipal officials have yet been charged in their personal capacities in a recent string of criminal and civil prosecutions instituted by national and provincial departments aimed at curbing the flow of sewage into the nation’s scarce water resources or farmland.

In an admission of guilt agreement, signed in his representative capacity, Dipaleseng municipal manager Cindi acknowledged that the wastewater treatment works had collapsed.

The municipality had also failed to take action after receiving three government compliance notices from the Mpumalanga agriculture department and the DWS for compliance failures dating back to early 2018. The first directive was issued in early 2019 and two further directives were issued in April and October 2021.

According to Cindi’s LinkedIn profile, he attended Glenwood High School and Kearsney College in KwaZulu-Natal before studying architecture at Wits University. After stints at the Lekwa and Endumeni municipalities and in the private sector, he joined the Dipaleseng municipality in January 2021 as director of planning and economic development. He was appointed municipal manager in October 2022. His profile states that he also owns an architectural services and project management group and is chief director of a funeral parlour in Standerton.

Dipaleseng municipal manager Lwazi Cindi. (Photo: LinkedIn profile)

“For six years, the residents of Balfour (and surrounding areas) have endured the most inhumane living conditions due to the constant sewer spills,” the plea agreement states.

The quality of wastewater throughout the municipality was now “beyond toxic” due to the “dire neglect” of treatment works “due to mismanagement of funds”.

Apart from the raw sewage flows, land and nearby rivers were further contaminated by sludge, oils, fats and other effluents from local businesses and industries – which would now be compelled to install pre-treatment equipment to reduce pollution levels before it reached the municipal treatment works.

The agreement further acknowledges that Balfour’s treatment works had been abandoned and vandalised by thieves collecting scrap metal and other materials and there were no security guards or officials present.

Effluent was discharged directly into the Vaal River and also overflowed into residential areas and agricultural fields. Apart from the daily stench, the bacteria and pathogens posed a severe health threat to people, crops and livestock.

Aggravating factors included an acknowledgement that state organs were not immune from prosecution, while the DWS and the Mpumalanga agriculture department had been compelled to approach the courts as a “final resort” after directives were ignored. DM

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